BEHAVIORAL AND BRAIN SCIENCES (2008) 31, 559–621 Printed in the United States of America doi:10.1017/S0140525X08005293
Emotional responses to music: The need to consider underlying mechanisms
Patrik N. Juslin Department of Psychology, Uppsala University, SE-75142 Uppsala, Sweden [email protected] http://www.psyk.uu.se/hemsidor/musicpsy2/
Daniel Va¨stfja¨ll Department of Psychology, Go¨teborg University, SE-40530 Go¨teborg, Sweden [email protected] http://www.psy.gu.se/Personal/DaneilV.htm
Abstract: Research indicates that people value music primarily because of the emotions it evokes. Yet, the notion of musical emotions remains controversial, and researchers have so far been unable to offer a satisfactory account of such emotions. We argue that the study of musical emotions has suffered from a neglect of underlying mechanisms. Specifically, researchers have studied musical emotions without regard to how they were evoked, or have assumed that the emotions must be based on the “default” mechanism for emotion induction, a cognitive appraisal. Here, we present a novel theoretical framework featuring six additional mechanisms through which music listening may induce emotions: (1) brain stem reflexes, (2) evaluative conditioning, (3) emotional contagion, (4) visual imagery, (5) episodic memory, and (6) musical expectancy. We propose that these mechanisms differ regarding such characteristics as their information focus, ontogenetic development, key brain regions, cultural impact, induction speed, degree of volitional influence, modularity, and dependence on musical structure. By synthesizing theory and findings from different domains, we are able to provide the first set of hypotheses that can help researchers to distinguish among the mechanisms. We show that failure to control for the underlying mechanism may lead to inconsistent or non-interpretable findings. Thus, we argue that the new framework may guide future research and help to resolve previous disagreements in the field. We conclude that music evokes emotions through mechanisms that are not unique to music, and that the study of musical emotions could benefit the emotion field as a whole by providing novel paradigms for emotion induction.
Keywords: affect; arousal; brain; emotion; induction; music; mechanism; memory; theory
1. Introduction as film music (Cohen 2001), marketing (Bruner 1990), and therapy (Bunt & Hoskyns 2002). Of all the problems that may confront a music psycholo- However, despite a recent upswing of research on gist, none is perhaps more important than to explain listen- musical emotions (for an extensive review, see Juslin & ers’ reactions to music. Some kind of musical experience is Sloboda 2001), the literature presents a confusing picture the basis for every musical activity, regardless of whether it with conflicting views on almost every topic in the field.1 involves composing, performing, or listening to music. A few examples may suffice to illustrate this point: Several studies have suggested that the most common Becker (2001, p. 137) notes that “emotional responses to goal of musical experiences is to influence emotions: music do not occur spontaneously, nor ‘naturally’,” yet People use music to change emotions, to release emotions, Peretz (2001, p. 126) claims that “this is what emotions to match their current emotion, to enjoy or comfort them- are: spontaneous responses that are difficult to disguise.” selves, and to relieve stress (e.g., Behne 1997; Juslin & Noy (1993, p. 137) concludes that “the emotions evoked Laukka 2004; Sloboda & O’Neill 2001; Zillman & Gan by music are not identical with the emotions aroused by 1997). everyday, interpersonal activity,” but Peretz (2001, p. 122) Yet, music’s apparent ability to induce strong emotions argues that “there is as yet no theoretical or empirical is a mystery that has fascinated both experts and lay reason for assuming such specificity.” Koelsch (2005, people at least since ancient Greece (Budd 1985). “How p. 412) observes that emotions to music may be induced do sounds, which are, after all, just sounds, have the “quite consistently across subjects,” yet Sloboda (1996, power to so deeply move those involved with them?” p. 387) regards individual differences as an “acute (Reimer 2003, p. 73). To explain how music can induce problem.” Scherer (2003, p. 25) claims that “music does emotions in listeners is all the more important since not induce basic emotions,” but Panksepp and Bernatzky music is already used in several applications in society (2002, p. 134) consider it “remarkable that any medium that presume its effectiveness in inducing emotions, such could so readily evoke all the basic emotions.” Researchers
# 2008 Cambridge University Press 0140-525X/08 $40.00 559 Downloaded from https:/www.cambridge.org/core. University of Basel Library, on 30 May 2017 at 20:11:59, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at https:/www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0140525X08005505 Juslin & Va¨stfja¨ll: Emotional responses to music do not even agree about whether music induces emotions: music.3 This processing could be simple or complex. It Sloboda (1992, p. 33) claims that “there is a general consen- could be available to consciousness or not. However, sus that music is capable of arousing deep and significant what the mechanisms discussed here have in common is emotions,” yet Konecˇni (2003, p. 332) writes that “instru- that they become activated by taking music as their mental music cannot directly induce genuine emotions in “object.” We adhere to the notion that a defining feature listeners.” of emotions is that they involve intentional objects: They At the heart of all this controversy, we believe, lies the are “about” something (Frijda 1999, p. 191). For fact that researchers have not devoted enough attention example, we are sad about the death of a loved one. to the question of how music induces emotions. Most What are musical emotions about? writers on the subject acknowledge that this is the most One problem with musical emotions is that the conditions important issue: “Music arouses strong emotional responses for eliciting emotions appear to be different from those in in people, and they want to know why” (Dowling & everyday life: In the paradigmatic case, an emotion is Harwood 1986, p. 202). Yet, a search of the literature aroused when an event is appraised as having the capacity reveals that surprisingly few articles make any attempt to affect the goals of the perceiver somehow (Carver & whatsoever to explain the psychological mechanisms that Scheier 1998). Thus, for example, a reviewer’s criticism of underlie listeners’ emotional responses to music. For a manuscript may threaten the author’s goal to get it pub- instance, a search for peer-reviewed articles (in English) lished. Because music does not seem to have any capacity in PsycINFO and RILM Abstracts of Music Literature, to further or block goals, it seems strange that music can using the query music and emotion and the time limits induce emotions. Indeed, it has been denied by some 1967–2007, revealed 1,033 and 423 articles, respectively, authors that music can induce common “everyday emotions” of which a single article in PsycINFO (i.e., Steinbeis et al. such as sadness, happiness, and anger (Kivy 1990; Konecˇni 2006) and none of the articles in RILM aimed to empirically 2003; Scherer 2003). We suspect that this view rests on the test a theory about how music induces emotions; 21 articles assumption that such emotions need to reflect a cognitive in each database (2% and 5%, respectively) mentioned appraisal (see Gabriel & Crickmore [1977], Scherer & a mechanism, or the issue of emotion induction more Zentner [2001], Stratton & Zalanowski [1989; 1991], and generally, without reporting any relevant data.2 Although Waterman [1996]) for claims about an important role of these searches may not have uncovered every relevant cognitive appraisal in emotional responses to music). article, the point is that the great majority of studies The main assumption of appraisal theory is that of musical emotions have not concerned underlying emotions arise, and are distinguished, on the basis of a mechanisms. person’s subjective evaluation of an event on appraisal We use the term psychological mechanism broadly in dimensions such as novelty, urgency, goal congruence, this article to refer to any information processing that coping potential, and norm compatibility (for an excellent leads to the induction of emotions through listening to review, see Scherer 1999). Occasionally, music may lead to the induction of emotions through some of the same appraisal dimensions. Thus, for example, a person may PATRIK N. JUSLIN is Associate Professor of Psychology be trying to sleep at night, but is prevented from doing at Uppsala University, Sweden, where he teaches so by the disturbing sounds of a neighbor playing loud courses on music, emotion, perception, and research music on his or her stereo. In this case, the music methodology. He completed his Ph.D. in 1998 under becomes an object of the person’s irritation because it the supervision of Alf Gabrielsson. Juslin has published blocks the person’s goal: to fall asleep. Although there numerous articles in the areas of expression in music performance, emotional responses to music, music is nothing particularly “musical” about this example, it is education, and emotion in speech. In 2001, he edited clear that music can sometimes induce emotions in listen- the volume Music and Emotion: Theory and Research ers in this manner (Juslin et al., in press). Such responses together with John Sloboda. Juslin and Sloboda are cur- can easily be explained by traditional theories of emotion. rently editing a handbook on music and emotion. Juslin However, the problem is that the available evidence indi- is a member of the International Society for Research cates that this type of emotion is not typical of music liste- on Emotions. Alongside his work as a researcher, he ning – most emotional reactions to music do not involve has worked professionally as a guitar player. implications for goals in life, which explains why they are
¨ ¨ regarded as mysterious: “The listener’s sad response DANIEL VASTFJALL is a Research Scientist at Decision appears to lack the beliefs that typically go with sadness” Research, Eugene, Oregon, U.S.A., and Assistant Pro- fessor of Psychology and Psychoacoustics at Go¨teborg (Davies 2001, p. 37). University and Chalmers University of Technology, Because music does not seem to have goal implications, Sweden. His educational history includes Ph.D.’s in some researchers have assumed that music cannot induce both Psychology and Acoustics. His research focuses emotions at all (Konecˇni 2003) – or, at least, that it cannot on the role of emotion in judgment, perception, and induce basic emotions related to survival functions (Kivy psychophysics. A common theme for his research is 1990; Scherer 2003).4 Some researchers allow for the how emotion serves as information for judgments possibility that music may induce “more subtle, music- about objects, the self, and health. His current research specific emotions” (Scherer & Zentner 2001, p. 381; see focus is on the relationship between music and also Gurney 1880; Lippman 1953; Swanwick 1985), the emotion, particularly on how acoustic parameters con- precise nature of which remains to be clarified. This tribute to emotional responses. Va¨stfja¨ll is currently heading research projects on the link between music notion is sometimes coupled with the assumption that and health and on the psychoacoustics of musical musical emotions are induced through some unique (but emotion. yet unspecified) process that has little or nothing in common with the induction mechanisms of “ordinary”
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emotions. We reject these views on both theoretical and emotions are induced, (c) consider how this framework empirical grounds, and claim that music can induce a might guide future research and help to resolve previous wide range of both basic and complex emotions in listeners disagreements, and (d) discuss implications for research via several psychological mechanisms that emotions to on emotions in general and musical emotions in particular. music share with other emotions. The primary argument of this target article is that research on music and emotion has failed to become 2. Does music really induce emotions? cumulative because music researchers have either neg- lected underlying psychological mechanisms or assumed Studies of music and emotion have been conducted off that musical emotions reflect a cognitive appraisal. We and on since psychology’s birth at the end of the nine- argue that it is important to look beyond appraisal theory teenth century (Gabrielsson & Juslin 2003). The majority and consider alternative but less obvious ways in which of studies have focused on how listeners perceive emotions music might induce emotions. While appraisal may be expressed in the music. Similarly, most theories of music important for many forms of art (Silvia 2005), there are and emotion have focused on the representational features other mechanisms that are far more relevant in the case of music that enable listeners to perceive emotions (e.g., of music. We claim that if these additional mechanisms Clynes 1977; Cooke 1959; Langer 1957). However, per- are taken into account, there is nothing particularly strange ception of emotions is primarily a sensory or cognitive about results that suggest that music induces all kinds of process that does not necessarily say anything about emotions (Gabrielsson 2001, Table 19.2). what the listener himself or herself is feeling, since percep- The problem is that most researchers seem to have mis- tion of emotions may well proceed without any emotional takenly assumed that musical emotions can be studied and involvement (Gabrielsson 2002; Harre´ 1997). Hence, described without regard to how they were induced. Most induction of emotions must be studied in its own right. studies have not controlled for the underlying mechanism, With an increasing number of studies devoted to explor- despite their attempts to generalize about the nature of ing emotional responses to music, we are in a good pos- musical emotions. Unfortunately, as discussed further in ition to answer more definitively the long-standing sections 4.1 and 4.4, failure to distinguish between mech- question of whether music really can induce emotions. anisms may lead to apparently inconsistent findings and However, the answer to this question depends on how unnecessary controversy among researchers. We believe emotion is defined. Table 1 offers working definitions of that the solution to this problem is a more hypothesis- affective terms used in this article, based on the emerging driven approach that takes the characteristics of each consensus in research on affect (e.g., Davidson et al. 2003, mechanism into account. Such an approach is proposed p. xiii; Juslin & Scherer 2005, Table 3.1; Oatley et al. 2006, in this article. pp. 29–31). In the following, we (a) review evidence from different Although researchers may not agree on a precise defi- kinds of sources to show that, despite claims to the con- nition of emotions, they largely agree on the characteristics trary, music can induce emotions, (b) present a novel and components of an emotional response (e.g., Izard theoretical framework, featuring six psychological mech- 2007). As shown in Table 1, emotions are typically anisms and 66 hypotheses, that explains how such described as relatively brief, though intense, affective
Table 1. Working definitions of affective terms used in this target article
Affect An umbrella term that covers all evaluative – or valenced (i.e., positive/negative) – states such as emotion, mood, and preference. Emotions Relatively intense affective responses that usually involve a number of sub-components – subjective feeling, physiological arousal, expression, action tendency, and regulation – which are more or less synchronized. Emotions focus on specific objects, and last minutes to a few hours. Musical emotions A short term for “emotions that are induced by music.” Moods Affective states that feature a lower felt intensity than emotions, that do not have a clear object, and that last much longer than emotions (several hours to days). Feeling The subjective experience of emotion (or mood). This component is commonly measured via self-report and reflects any or all of the other emotion components. Arousal Activation of the autonomic nervous system (ANS). Physiological arousal is one of the components of an emotional response but can also occur in the absence of emotions (e.g., during exercise). Preferences Long-term evaluations of objects or persons with a low intensity (e.g., liking of a specific music style). Emotion induction All instances where music evokes an emotion in a listener, regardless of the nature of the process that evoked the emotion. Emotion perception All instances where a listener perceives or recognizes expressed emotions in music (e.g., a sad expression), without necessarily feeling an emotion. Cognitive appraisal An individual’s subjective evaluation of an object or event on a number of dimensions in relation to the goals, motives, needs, and values of the individual.
BEHAVIORAL AND BRAIN SCIENCES (2008) 31:5 Downloaded from https:/www.cambridge.org/core. University of Basel Library, on 30 May 2017 at 20:11:59, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at 561 https:/www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0140525X08005505 Juslin & Va¨stfja¨ll: Emotional responses to music reactions to potentially important events or changes in the appears to induce a wide range of both basic and external or internal environment that involve several sub- complex emotions (e.g., Gabrielsson 2001, Table 19.2; components: (a) cognitive appraisal (e.g., you appraise the Juslin & Laukka 2004, Table 4; Sloboda 1992, Table 1; situation as “dangerous”), (b) subjective feeling (e.g., you Wells & Hakanen 1991, Table 1), something that a feel afraid), (c) physiological arousal (e.g., your heart theory of musical emotion must be able to account for. starts to beat faster), (d) expression (e.g., you scream), There is also preliminary evidence of synchronization of (e) action tendency (e.g., you run away), and (f) regulation emotion components in response to music (Lundqvist (e.g., you try to calm yourself) (e.g., Ekman 1992a; et al., in press). Johnson-Laird & Oatley 1992; Scherer 2000b). Each of Most studies of musical emotions have relied merely on these six components can be used to measure emotions, self-report, which could be subject to demand character- though researchers debate the extent to which different istics (i.e., the total sum of cues that convey the research- components are synchronized during an emotional er’s hypothesis to the participant and thus may influence response (cf. Frijda 1999; Scherer 2000b). the participant’s behavior; Orne 1962). It is therefore To demonstrate that music can evoke “real” emotions, promising that several studies have reported effects of one should provide evidence that music produces reac- musically induced emotions on indirect measures that tions in all of the aforementioned emotion components. should be less sensitive to demand characteristics (see Such evidence comes from many different strands of Table 3). These findings, which suggest that music can research and is summarized in Table 2. Although each be just as effective as other emotion-elicitation techniques, source of evidence is associated with its own set of pro- offer further evidence that music induces emotions in lis- blems, the combined evidence is quite compelling. If teners. Though these studies are sometimes referred to as these findings do not reflect emotions, as some have studies of mood induction, we claim that music usually argued, what exactly do they reflect? Most of the evidence induces emotions rather than moods,5 because listeners’ was collected in Western societies, though there is evi- reactions focus on an “object” (the music, or more specifi- dence from anthropology and ethology that emotional cally certain information in the music processed relative to reactions to music occur in all human societies of the individual and situational factors), they last only for a world and are not simply inventions of the Western limited duration (ca. 5–40 mins; Va¨stfja¨ll 2002a, p. 192; world (Becker 2001; 2004; Eibl-Eibesfeldt 1989). Music see also Panksepp & Bernatzky 2002), and they involve
Table 2. Summary of evidence of emotional reactions to music in terms of various subcomponents
Emotion component Finding Selected references
Subjective feeling Listeners report that they experience emotions Behne 1997; DeNora 2000; Juslin while listening to music in experiments, & Laukka 2004; Pike 1972; questionnaires, diary studies, and qualitative Sloboda & O’Neill 2001 interviews. Positive emotions are more commonly reported than negative emotions. Psychophysiology Music listening may give rise to physiological Bartlett 1996; Krumhansl 1997; reactions similar to those shown to other Lundqvist et al., in press; “emotional” stimuli, including changes in Nyklı´cˇek et al. 1997; Vaitl et al. heart rate, skin temperature, electrodermal 1993 response, respiration, and hormone secretion. Brain activation Listeners’ responses to music involve regions of Blood & Zatorre 2001; Blood et al. the brain that are known from previous 1999; Brown et al. 2004; research to be implicated in emotional Koelsch et al. 2006; Menon & responses, including thalamus, hippocampus, Levitin 2005 amygdala, prefrontal cortex, orbitofrontal cortex, midbrain/periaqueductal gray (PAG), insula, and nucleus accumbens. Emotional expression Music listening makes people cry, smile, laugh, Becker 2004; Frey 1985; and furrow their eyebrows, as indicated by Gabrielsson 2001; Sloboda self-reports, observations, and 1991; Witvliet & Vrana 2007 electromyographic measures of facial muscles. Action tendency Music influences people’s action tendencies, Fried & Berkowitz 1979; such as their tendency to help other people, to North et al. 2004; Rieber 1965; consume products, or to move – either overtly Harrer & Harrer 1977 or covertly. Emotion regulation Listeners attempt to regulate their own Becker 2001; Gabrielsson 2001 emotional reactions to music, e.g., with regard to what are deemed appropriate responses in a social context.
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Table 3. Examples of findings from studies that used indirect measures of musically induced emotions
Measure Description Study
Psychomotor Writing speed Shorter time for writing down numbers from 100 to 1 Pignatiello et al. 1986 Count time Shorter time to count from 1 to 10 Clark & Teasdale 1985 Distance approximation Smaller distances estimated Kenealy 1988 Motivational Incentives Higher ratings of willingness to participate in social activities Wood et al 1990 Information processing Word association Shorter time to produce associations to words Kenealy 1988 Coding speed Shorter time to complete a symbol-coding procedure Wood et al. 1990 Decision time Shorter time to decision Kenealy 1988 Judgmental/Behavioral Subjective probability Higher estimates of probability of success and lower Teasdale & Spencer 1984 estimates of failure Evaluative judgments More positive evaluations of ads Gorn et al. 2001 Purchase intentions Lower in-store purchase intentions Bruner 1990 Sexual arousal Stronger sexual arousal Mitchell et al. 1998 Physical attraction Higher ratings of attraction May & Hamilton 1980 Emotion perception More happiness and less sadness perceived in facial expressions Bouhuys et al. 1995