The impact of disfavoured music on affect complexity in young adults

Abstract

The notion that a positive and negative affect can co-exist is described as affect complexity. According to the Dynamic Model of Affect, stressful events decrease affect complexity. This study examined whether disliked music acts on its listeners in a similar manner to stressful events. Young adults (N = 397), 191 non-fans of the heavy metal genre and 206 fans of this genre, were exposed to a popular heavy metal song. Positive and negative emotions were measured before and after the exposure. While the affect complexity of non-fans decreased after listening to the heavy metal song, it remained stable among the fans of this genre (β = -.42). Moreover, the level of negative emotions increased and the level of positive emotions decreased among non-fans, whereas among the fans the level of positive emotions increased. Furthermore, the increase in negative emotions occurred in high arousal emotions among the nonfans. The findings of this study provide evidence of the differential impact of music on the listeners' affect complexity, and on how this impact is associated with music preference. Since affect complexity is an important asset strongly and positively associated with people's well-being, these findings justify further exploration of the impact of music on the affect complexity of its consumers.Keywords disliked music, Dynamic Model of Affect, emotional complexity, heavy metal music, "problem music"The notion that a person may be feeling more positive while at the same time not experience a reduction in negative feelings and vice versa is described as affect complexity. Affect complexity has been widely studied during the last 10 years, as psychologists have begun to realize that positive and negative affect systems can operate conjointly (e.g.

The role of music among prisoners and prison staff: A qualitative research study

“…The findings also indicated that conflicts between prisoners about the type and volume of music could lead to aggravation, fights and even physical violence. These findings are consistent with other studies that cited the potential of unpleasant music to provoke anger (Gowensmith and Bloom, 1997) and found that disliked music increased the level of negative emotions and decreased the level of positive emotions (Bodner and Bensimon, 2016). Moreover, the connection between disliked music and conflict is expressed dramatically in its systematic use as a 'no-touch' instrument of torture in interrogation rooms (Cusick, 2006).…”