Prior research has amply documented that happy music tends to be faster, louder, higher in average pitch, more variable in pitch, and more staccato in articulation, whereas sad music tends to be slower, lower, less variable, and more legato in articulation. However, the bulk of existing studies are either correlational or allow these expressive cues to covary freely, thereby making it difficult to confirm the causal influence of a given cue. To help address this gap, we experimentally assessed whether the average height (F0) of a pitch gamut independently impacts the perceived emotional expression of melodies derived from the gamut. Study participants rated the perceived happiness/sadness of a set of isochronous and semi-random tone sequences derived from the Bohlen-Pierce scale, an unconventional scale based on pitch intervals that do not appear in common practice music. Results were consistent with the notion that higher average pitch height communicates happiness and/or that lower pitch height communicates sadness. Moreover, they suggested that the effect is: (1) sufficiently robust to be detected using rudimentary melodies based on an unconventional musical scale; and, (2) independent of interval size.

In this experiment, we resolved a number of the primary methodological limitations of prior studies so as to reinvestigate whether sadness fosters affect-congruency in music choice. To this end, we manipulated sad as well as neutral and happy affective states, using well-validated film-based inductions, measured music choice after rigorously controlling for differences in musical content and structure between expressively sad and happy music options, and used techniques borrowed from experimental social psychology to mitigate the potential for demand characteristics. Confirming prior lab-based and naturalistic findings, participants showed an overall tendency to prefer expressively happy over sad music; however, individuals in sad affective states failed to show any absolute tendency to favor sad music, calling into question the notion that "misery loves company" with respect to music choice. Supplementary findings revealed that individual differences in reflection, a form of private selfattentiveness, were associated with increased overall preference for sad music, yet that this effect was not moderated by induced affect. In sum, the present findings help clarify how both sadness and selfreferential cognitive styles are associated with music preference.

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