Emotional Reactions to Music in a Nationally Representative Sample of Swedish Adults: Prevalence and Causal Influences

Abstract

Empirical studies have indicated that listeners value music primarily for its ability to arouse emotions. Yet little is known about which emotions listeners normally experience when listening to music, or about the causes of these emotions. The goal of this study was therefore to explore the prevalence of emotional reactions to music in everyday life and how this is influenced by various factors in the listener, the music, and the situation. A self-administered mail questionnaire was sent to a random and nationally representative sample of 1,500 Swedish citizens between the ages of 18 and 65, and 762 participants (51%) responded to the questionnaire. Thirty-two items explored both musical emotions in general (semantic estimates) and the most recent emotion episode featuring music for each participant (episodic estimates). The results revealed several variables (e.g., personality, age, gender, listener activity) that were correlated with particular emotions. A multiple discriminant analysis indicated that three of the most common emotion categories in a set of musical episodes (i.e., happiness, sadness, nostalgia) could be predicted with a mean accuracy of 70% correct based on data obtained from the questionnaire. The results may inform theorizing about musical emotions and guide the selection of causal variables for manipulation in future experiments.

An integrative review of the enjoyment of sadness associated with music

“…For example, Western listeners may be more inclined to believe that listening to music is to give us powerful 700 but private emotional experiences because of the lore in our culture, whereas in other cultures, these emotional responses might be completely different and are embedded in social activities, as Robinson [31] has proposed. Thus, although the Western concept of music-induced sadness is often related to solitude and privacy [10,178], this does not necessarily apply to listeners with other kind of 705 conceptual knowledge about music or sadness [176]. We do not have enough evidence relating to the differences in sadness and music across cultures, but there are well-documented differences in cultural expressions of sympathy [179], and anger and shame [180].…”

“…Music that induces sadness but is nevertheless intensely enjoyed provides a striking example of this phenomenon. It is not just the fact that most cultures have a distinct category for sad music [9], and that listeners frequently report everyday experiences of sadness induced by sad music [10], 35 but these experiences are commonly described to be highly enjoyable [11].…”

“…In music, emotions often take the form of mood regulation. The pleasure derived from sad music is no different; experi-100 ences driven by sad music are known to be more prevalent in specific situations, are related to pursuing self-regulatory goals [28], and commonly take place in solitary situations [10] and in particularly poignant circumstances [6].…”

From Sound to Significance: Exploring the Mechanisms Underlying Emotional Reactions to Music

“…The least commonly reported cause was Cognitive appraisal, confirming that music rarely has any implications for life goals. Juslin, Liljeström, Laukka, Västfjäll, and Lundqvist (2011) similarly explored the occurence of a wide range of psychological mechanisms, using a randomized and statistically representative sample of the Swedish population. They reported similar findings: Episodic memory, Contagion and Brain stem reflex were all among the mechanisms rated as most frequent by music listeners.…”

“…Survey and experience sampling studies 1 to date suggest that music evokes a wide range of emotional states, including calm, happiness, nostalgia, interest, pleasure, sadness, arousal, love and pride, and numerous synonymous terms (e.g., Juslin & Laukka, 2004;Juslin et al, , 2011Sloboda, 1992;Wells & Hakanen, 1991;Zentner, Grandjean, & Scherer, 2008).…”