“So sad and slow, so why can’t I turn off the radio”: The effects of gender, depression, and absorption on liking music that induces sadness and music that induces happiness

Abstract

Huron (2011) theorized that listening to music that induces sadness could lead to higher levels of prolactin, which would lead to increased liking of music that induces sadness, but this relationship would depend on individual factors of age, gender, depression, and personality. This study explored the link between these individual factors on liking music that induces sadness and music that induces happiness to determine if further testing would be viable. This study surveyed 488 college students (338 women, 146 men) and included measures of age, depression, absorption in music, and gender as predictors of liking music that induces sadness and music that induces happiness. Gender and depression predicted liking music that induces sadness, where both men's and women's liking increased as depression increased but did so much more for men than it did for women. Gender and absorption in music interacted to predict liking music that induces happiness. For women, there was no relation between absorption in music and liking. For men, there was a positive relation between absorption in music and liking. Age did not affect liking either types of music. These results imply that Huron's (2011) model could depend on gender, general depression, and absorption in music.Liking music that induces sadness is a perplexing paradox. It appears to be counter-intuitive that people would like something that increases their sadness, but liking music that induces sadness is a very common experience. Studying this phenomenon can help explain how people mitigate negative experiences, find pleasure in suffering, and use music to cope with challenges.

Being Moved by Unfamiliar Sad Music Is Associated with High Empathy

“…Nostalgia has often been mentioned as one of the variables explaining the enjoyment of music-induced sadness (Barrett et al, 2010 ; Taruffi and Koelsch, 2014 ), but it may be that experiences of nostalgia are more often evoked by familiar (rather than unfamiliar) sad music. Absorption has also been previously associated with liking for sad music (Garrido and Schubert, 2011b ; Hogue et al, 2016 ) and the intensity of emotional responses evoked by it (Kreutz et al, 2008 ), but it did not predict emotional responses in the present study. It may be that some of the differences observed between the results of previous studies and the present study are due to methodological differences, as many of the previous studies (Garrido and Schubert, 2011a , 2013 ; Taruffi and Koelsch, 2014 ; Hogue et al, 2016 ) have employed survey measures without actual music listening.…”

“…Absorption has also been previously associated with liking for sad music (Garrido and Schubert, 2011b ; Hogue et al, 2016 ) and the intensity of emotional responses evoked by it (Kreutz et al, 2008 ), but it did not predict emotional responses in the present study. It may be that some of the differences observed between the results of previous studies and the present study are due to methodological differences, as many of the previous studies (Garrido and Schubert, 2011a , 2013 ; Taruffi and Koelsch, 2014 ; Hogue et al, 2016 ) have employed survey measures without actual music listening. Survey studies cannot differentiate between responses to familiar and unfamiliar sad music, and thus the links observed between background variables and responses to sad music may be attributable to sources external to music.…”

"Sing me a sad song and make me feel better": Exploring rewards related to liking familiar sad music

“…Absorption may be a significant predictor for communion and emotions on its own. Past research has shown that absorption is a predictor of liking songs that induce sadness (Garrido & Schubert, 2013;Hogue, Crimmins, & Kahn, 2015) and on liking songs that induce happiness (Hogue et al, 2015). Furthermore, absorption was significantly, positively correlated with all three unfamiliar instrumental excerpts in Hogue (2013) and with three of the six song types in the current experiment.…”

Evaluating the inoculation effect of music on stress reactivity in healthy young and older adults: the moderating role of music absorption

“…In the current study, high music absorbers also reported greater excitement and agitation during the study protocol compared with low music absorbers. These findings may be compared with the study by Hogue et al (2016), who not only showed that increase in the tendency to be absorbed by music associated with greater tendency to "like" music (thus suggesting greater emotional responsivity to music), but also showed that an increased tendency to be absorbed by music associated with increased reports of general depression, suggesting an association between music absorption and reports of greater negative affect. However, the effect of music absorption on stress reactivity becomes more complex when analyzing age effects;…”

“…Stemming from this study, a 34-item Absorption in Music Scale (AIMS) was developed to measure degree of absorption when listening to music, thus identifying individuals who may be particularly responsive to music (Sandstrom & Russo, 2013). In support of this, Hogue, Crimmins, and Kahn (2016) showed that music absorption in young adults was positively associated with liking music that induces both happiness and sadness. In a questionnaire-based study by Loxton, Mitchell, Dingle, and Sharman (2016) that examined the role of music engagement in Reinforcement Sensitivity Theory, it was found that the positive association between reward sensitivity and music involvement was mediated by music absorption.…”