I Get Knocked Down but I Get Up Again: The Effects of Listening to Music When Sad on Young Adults

Abstract

*THIS PAPER HAS NOT YET BEEN PEER REVIEWED* Listening to music is a strategy many people use to regulate their emotions, especially sadness. However, there is disagreement about whether listening to music is a healthy way to regulate emotions, with some research finding that sad music worsens a sad state, especially for people high in rumination. To further explore the immediate consequences of music listening when sad 128 young adults (41% male, aged 18 to 25 years) were induced into a sad emotional state prior to random assignment to listening of either self-selected music, experimenter-selected sad music, or no music. Results revealed that listening to either self-selectedor experimenter-selected music led to a decrease in sadness. No difference was found between groups at post-listening. However, participants who listened to self-selected music reported a return to baseline levels of sadness, while this did not occur for participants who listened to experimenter-selected or were in the no music control. Rumination was also measured but did not moderate the impact of music listening on sadness for either musiccondition. Furthermore, there was no impact of rumination on participants’ perceptions of sadness in music. These results support the notion that listening to sad music does not worsen a sad state—even for those high in rumination—although it does appear to slow the emotion regulation process in cases where sad music is not self-selected.

Music May Reduce Loneliness and Act as Social Surrogate for a Friend: Evidence from an Experimental Listening Study

“…While distraction is known as one of the most effective strategies for mood repair (Augustine & Hemenover, 2009; Salovey et al, 1999), this finding may seem at odds with the choice of musical pieces with a sadder expression in the comfort condition. However, it has been shown that the engagement with sad excerpts can make listeners feel better (Eerola & Peltola, 2016; Eerola et al, 2016; Larwood & Dingle, 2018; Yoon et al, 2020) and that the mood enhancement might stem from the high aesthetic value of the selected sad music (Garrido & Schubert, 2011b; van den Tol & Edwards, 2014). Thus, choosing music with a sad expression is compatible with mood improvement, supporting the notion that listening to music can support mood repair.…”

Efficacy and Outcomes of a Music-Based Emotion Regulation Mobile App in Distressed Young People: Randomized Controlled Trial

“…A Web-based experiment found listening to self-selected sad music increased depressive moods and listening to happy music reduced them [34]. However, a partial replication of that study found both participant- and experimenter-selected sad music reduced a depressive mood if a negative mood was induced (via a video clip) before music listening [35]. Finally, music use among people who use cognitive reappraisal as an emotion regulation strategy has been found to enhance well-being, whereas the use of expressive suppression reduced well-being [36].…”