Emotional Responses to Music (04-05-10)

By varying the tempo and mode of short music clips, Hunter and his colleagues were able to confirm earlier research on human emotional responses to these attributes of music.  Faster  (more than 90 beats per minute, approximately) pieces and those in a major key generally made listeners feel happier, while slower (45-89 beats per minute, roughly) music and compositions in a minor key made people feel sadder.  Listeners also usually prefer happy sounding music.   Study participants had mixed happy/sad feelings when they listened to music segments with conflicting emotional cues (fast-minor, slow-major).  Atmospheric music is an important determinant of place experience.

Patrick Hunter, E. Schellenberg, and Ulrich Schimmack.  2010.  “Feelings and Perceptions of Happiness and Sadness Induced by Music:  Similarities, Differences, and Mixed Emotions.”  Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts, vol. 4, no. 1, pp. 47-56.