The influence of film music on moral judgments of movie scenes and felt emotions

Abstract

Music can modulate perceptions, actions, and judgments in everyday situations. The aim of this study was to investigate a potential influence of music on moral judgments in the context of film reception. In the course of an online experiment, 252 participants were assigned to three different experimental conditions (no, positive, or negative music). Participants were requested to assess actions shown in two 2–3-minute audio-visual film excerpts with regard to their perceived moral rightness and to report induced emotions after watching the film clips. Afterwards, they were asked to complete the MFQ-30 questionnaire measuring the foundations of their moral judgments. Results revealed that in one of four cases (i.e. happiness in film excerpt 1), music had a significant effect on recipients’ emotions and also indirectly influenced their moral judgment. In three of four cases, however, the intended emotion induction through film music did not succeed, and thus a significant indirect influence of music on moral judgment was not found. Furthermore, associations between moral foundations, perceived rightness of action, and induced emotions were observed. Future lab studies are indicated to investigate potential moderating influences of the experimental environment on emotion induction through film music.

On music’s potential to convey meaning in film: A systematic review of empirical evidence

“…That is the reason why most often scenes without original music are chosen as stimulus material. Only Tan et al (2007, p. 139), as well as Steffens (2020), mentioned this aspect, which could indicate that there is still insufficient awareness of this problem. For example, the participants in Costabile and Terman (2013) had to watch a realistic seven-minute film stimulus completely lacking in any kind of sound.…”

“…The results of Bullerjahn et al (1993), who collect five specific participant characteristics (e.g., music expertise, media use) in addition to the subjects’ sociodemographic characteristics that are typically employed in the questionnaires, indicated a clear relevance of these intervening variables. Vitouch (2001) suspected that the partially heterogeneous effects of the music conditions in his experiment could have been explained by the general mood of his study’s protagonists (p. 81; for more possible intervening variables see also Brosius & Kepplinger, 1991; Shevy, 2007; Steffens, 2020; Strobin et al, 2015, p. 259). Future studies should contextualize the expected effects of their investigated dependent variables even more thoroughly with the assessment of intervening variables (Tan, 2017a, p. 521).…”

“…The fact that Strobin et al (2015) and Nosal et al (2016) could demonstrate music effects in online experiments should be the reason for future research to carry out experiments with more realistic reception situations. On the other hand, Steffens (2020) concluded after his online experiment that the intended emotion induction through music would have worked better in a realistic cinema setting.…”

“…Hence, recent studies paid more attention to music editing. Tan et al (2007) and Steffens (2020) edited their music to the visuals considering the original musical structures to prevent, for example, sudden endings that would appear unrealistic and automatically draw attention to the music. Costabile and Terman specified the problem to edit several stimuli with different music tracks in terms of structural congruency (2013, p. 230): if music is edited in a structurally appropriate way, musical accentuations of the visual level must be as identical as possible in all stimuli versions (to avoid the participants paying attention to different elements in the different stimulus version), which is highly challenging due to the different structures of the different original music used.…”

“…Costabile and Terman (2013) showed that positive and negative music in a short film about the care of older relatives could influence whether this responsibility was perceived as a positive function or a burden. Steffens (2020) demonstrated that positive emotions induced by positive music can alter the perception of film protagonists’ morally ambiguous actions. Nosal et al (2016) influenced their participants’ attitude towards sharks with the use of music with positive/negative connotation.…”