Music evokes vicarious emotions in listeners

Abstract

Why do we listen to sad music? We seek to answer this question using a psychological approach. It is possible to distinguish perceived emotions from those that are experienced. Therefore, we hypothesized that, although sad music is perceived as sad, listeners actually feel (experience) pleasant emotions concurrent with sadness. This hypothesis was supported, which led us to question whether sadness in the context of art is truly an unpleasant emotion. While experiencing sadness may be unpleasant, it may also be somewhat pleasant when experienced in the context of art, for example, when listening to sad music. We consider musically evoked emotion vicarious, as we are not threatened when we experience it, in the way that we can be during the course of experiencing emotion in daily life. When we listen to sad music, we experience vicarious sadness. In this review, we propose two sides to sadness by suggesting vicarious emotion.

Mind the First Step: The Intrapersonal Effects of Affect on the Decision to Initiate Negotiations under Bargaining Power Asymmetry

“…In another study, Tamir and Ford (2009) suggested that some individuals may be willing to experience negative affect as it may prove useful to attain instrumental gain. Additionally, Kawakami et al (2014) found that listening to sad music can be perceived as sad but can evoke positive emotional responses. They suggest that if a negative emotion does not constitute any real threat to the individual, then it generates a positive reaction.…”

Music and human voice in the context of mood

“…kapsayıcı yönü, disiplinlerarası birçok alan ile ilişkisel bir görünüme sahip olmasını hem gerekli kılmış, hem de daha belirgin bir hale getirmiştir. Dolayısıyla son zamanlarda müzik, duygu ve duygudurum üçgeninde yapılan araştırmalar ve analizler incelendiğinde, bu konularda kayda değer bir artışın görülmesi, müzik, duygu ve duygudurumu tanımanın ayrıntılı bir konu haline geldiğini göstermektedir (Baydağ, 2018;Eden, 2016;Gültepe, 2014;Kaufmann & Vosburg, 2002;Kawakami, Furukawa, & Okanoya, 2014;Kim, Schmidt, & Emelle 2010;Markov & Matsu, 2014;Öğüt, 2014;Plewa & Kostek, 2015;Van der Zwaag et al, 2012;Zentner, Grandjean & Scherer, 2008). Müzik ve duygudurum arasındaki ilişki, disiplinlerarası birçok çalışma alanının etkileşim halinde olmasına zemin hazırlamıştır (Juslin & Zentner, 2002).…”

“…Keywords: Emotion, Mood, Human voice, Music psychology Yükseköğretim ve Bilim Dergisi/Journal of Higher Education and Science bir çalışma, müzik eğitimi almış bireylerin hoş olmayan müzikleri (minör ton ya da uyumsuz aralıklar) dinlediklerinde, müzikten hoşnut kaldıkları sonucunu ortaya çıkarmıştır (Kawakami, Furukawa, Katahira, Kamiyama, & Okanoya, 2013). Dolayısıyla hissedilen duyguyu algılanan duygudan ayırt etmek gerekmektedir (Gabrielsson, 2002;Kawakami et al, 2014).…”

Face Recognition, Musical Appraisal, and Emotional Crossmodal Bias

“…Thus, the emotion produced by musical stimulation, as could be prosody in the previous model, may influence the stimuli perception of stimuli, presented in other sensory modalities, through a top-down process (Sekuler et al, 1997 ; Jolij and Meurs, 2011 ; Wong and Gauthier, 2012 ). Different musical genres can also modulate arousal and others psychophysiological parameters eliciting different emotions (Schellenberg, 2005 ; Caldwell and Riby, 2007 ; Sammler et al, 2007 ; Fritz et al, 2009 ; Ladinig and Schellenberg, 2012 ; Schellenberg and Mankarious, 2012 ; Kawakami et al, 2014 ; Bhatti et al, 2016 ). For example, Baumgartner and colleagues investigated the psychophysiological effect of the interaction between emotional visual images, music, and a crossmodal presentation (music and images; Baumgartner et al, 2006 ).…”

“…The N1 component was distributed over the frontal regions, suggesting the involvement of top–down psychophysiological mechanisms (Zanto et al, 2011 ; Gilbert and Li, 2013 ). Moreover, the perception of music is affected by the listener's emotional and cognitive state (Kawakami et al, 2013 , 2014 ). Many studies have highlighted differences between the cognitive processing and cortical responses of musicians and non-musicians (Pantev et al, 1998 ; Brattico et al, 2010 ; Müller et al, 2010 ; Pallesen et al, 2010 ; Herholz and Zatorre, 2012 ; Proverbio et al, 2013 ).…”