Durham E-Theses A Framework of Distinct Musical Chills: Theoretical, Causal, and Conceptual Evidence BANNISTER, SCOTT,CRAIG How to cite: BANNISTER, SCOTT,CRAIG (2020) A Framework of Distinct Musical Chills: Theoretical, Causal, and Conceptual Evidence, Durham theses, Durham University. Available at Durham E-Theses Online: http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/13582/ Use policy This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial 3.0 (CC BY-NC) Academic Support Oce, Durham University, University Oce, Old Elvet, Durham DH1 3HP e-mail: [email protected] Tel: +44 0191 334 6107 http://etheses.dur.ac.uk A Framework of Distinct Musical Chills: Theoretical, Causal, and Conceptual Evidence Scott Bannister Submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of Music Durham University, September 2019 ABSTRACT The phenomenon of musical chills has attracted extensive attention in previous music and emotion research, correlating the experience with musical structure, psychoacoustics parameters, individual differences in listeners, and the listening situation. However, there are three crucial limitations in the literature: 1) The emotional characteristics of musical chills have not been explored, and are poorly understood; 2) musical chills have never been causally manipulated, and no theories have been tested; and 3) it is unclear whether chills are a unified psychological construct, or a set of distinct experiences, distinguished at the levels of subjective feeling, psychophysiological response, individual differences, and underlying psychological induction mechanisms. Across five studies, ranging from qualitative surveys to experimental manipulations of musical chills, these limitations were addressed in the current thesis, with results suggesting firstly that musical chills are often mixed emotional experiences, described as moving, bittersweet and intense; secondly, that musical chills can be manipulated, and corresponding theories tested, with a novel experimental paradigm, by removing key sections in a piece or changing psychoacoustic parameters such as loudness and brightness; finally, that there are likely distinct types of chills experiences, which across multimedia are linked to both the affective dimension of valence and individual differences such as trait empathy, and with music through mechanisms of fear and vigilance on the one hand, and social bonding on the other. The studies and results are discussed in terms of two categories of musical chills experiences, culminating in a preliminary Distinct Musical Chills Framework, producing a series of testable hypotheses for future empirical work, and a comprehensive research agenda for the field moving forward. Acknowledgements This thesis was made possible by full financial support from the Arts and Humanities Research Council UK (AHRC), through a Northern Bridge Doctoral Training Partnership Award (Award No. AH/L503927/1). My ambition to start and complete my doctoral studies at Durham University would not have been possible without this award, and I am humbled and forever thankful for the opportunity. I am extremely grateful for the guidance of my supervisor, Professor Tuomas Eerola, for his tireless efforts and commitment to my development, the opportunities he has selflessly provided for me, feedback when I am unsure about smaller details, and the constant positive mind-set and approach to all aspects of the research, from new ideas, to difficult problems that alone I might have turned away from; this positivity, perhaps above all, is something I will always aspire to achieve. I am also thoroughly grateful for the input from my second supervisor, Professor Nick Collins, who helped and pushed me, especially early on, to publish, present and be ambitious in pursuing academic opportunities; this encouragement was hugely valuable to me, and fully changed my thought process from being unsure about what was possible, to feeling a stronger sense of belonging and capability in the context of research. I extend my thanks to all participants who took part in the studies; without your natural interest and selflessness this work would not have been possible. Of course, I would also like to thank my family and friends for their support, and for keeping me grounded; they have always offered a wonderful escape from the academic bubble, and with their help I have at times been able to switch off from research, which has, long-term, allowed me to carry out my studies as best and as healthily as I can. I would also extend special thanks to Sammy, for being extremely patient and supportive through the previous three years of my time in Durham. List of Publications For the published article for the study in Chapter 4, please see: Bannister, S. (2020). A survey into the experience of musically-induced chills: Emotions, situations and music. Psychology of Music, 48(2), 297-314. Doi: 10.1177/0305735618798024. For the published article for the study in Chapter 5, please see: Bannister, S., and Eerola, T. (2018). Suppressing the chills: Effects of musical manipulation on the chills response. Frontiers in Psychology, 9: 2046. Doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2018.02046. For the underlying, openly accessible datasets for the study in Chapter 5, please see: Bannister, S., and Eerola, T. (2017). Suppressing the chills: Self-reports, physiological and psychoacoustic correlates. Harvard Dataverse, Version 2.0. Doi: 10.7910/DVN/IUCN1Q. For the published article for the study in Chapter 6, please see: Bannister, S. (2020). A vigilance explanation of musical chills? Effects of loudness and brightness manipulations. Music and Science, 3, 1-17. Doi: 10.1177/2059204320915654. For the published article for the study in Chapter 7, please see: Bannister, S. (2019). Distinct varieties of aesthetic chills in response to multimedia. PLoS ONE, 14(11), e0224974. Doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0224974. For the underlying, openly accessible datasets for the study in Chapter 7, please see: Bannister, S. (2018). Distinct varieties of aesthetic chills in response to multimedia: Self-reports and stimulus information. Harvard Dataverse, Version 2.0. Doi: 10.7910/DVN/YFRSXW. Table of Contents 1. INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................. 1 1.1 MUSIC AND EMOTION .................................................................................................... 2 1.2 EMOTION ........................................................................................................................ 5 1.2.1 Theories of Emotion ............................................................................................... 6 1.2.2 A Working Definition of Emotion ......................................................................... 12 1.3 CAN MUSIC INDUCE EMOTION? ................................................................................... 14 1.3.1 Against Musically Induced Emotions ................................................................... 15 1.3.2 Utilitarian and Aesthetic Emotions ...................................................................... 16 1.3.3 Evidence for Music-Induced Emotion .................................................................. 17 1.4 OVERVIEW OF THE CURRENT RESEARCH PROJECT ..................................................... 19 2. PSYCHOLOGICAL MECHANISMS OF MUSICAL EMOTION ............................ 23 2.1 THE BRECVEMA FRAMEWORK ................................................................................. 24 2.1.1 Brain Stem Reflexes .............................................................................................. 24 2.1.2 Rhythmic Entrainment .......................................................................................... 25 2.1.3 Evaluative Conditioning ....................................................................................... 27 2.1.4 Contagion ............................................................................................................. 28 2.1.5 Visual Imagery ..................................................................................................... 30 2.1.6 Episodic Memory ................................................................................................. 32 2.1.7 Musical Expectancy ............................................................................................. 34 2.1.8 Aesthetic Judgment ............................................................................................... 35 2.2 LIMITATIONS ................................................................................................................ 37 2.2.1 Empathy ................................................................................................................ 38 2.3 SUMMARY .................................................................................................................... 40 3. MUSICALLY INDUCED CHILLS ............................................................................... 42 3.1 MUSICAL CHILLS ......................................................................................................... 43 3.1.1 Terminology and Definitions ................................................................................ 43 3.1.2 Physical, Psychophysiological and Neurophysiological Characteristics ............ 45 3.1.3 Scope and Related States ..................................................................................... 51 3.1.4 Summary ..............................................................................................................