Turn That Racket Down! Physical Anhedonia and Diminished Pleasure From Music

Abstract

Why do some people not enjoy listening to music as much as others? Two studies explored whether people high in physical anhedonia-an aspect of schizotypy that is associated with reduced pleasure from physical stimuli-are less engaged in the musical world than other people. Study 1 examined individual differences in music engagement and experience. People with higher levels of physical anhedonia reported valuing music less, experiencing fewer aesthetic emotions in response to music, liking fewer genres of music, and having less music experience. Study 2 used experience sampling to examine how individual differences in physical anhedonia predicted music engagement, music listening habits, and the aesthetic experiences of music in everyday life. During a typical week, people with higher levels of physical anhedonia spent less time listening to music. Taken together, these results suggest that as physical anhedonia increases, people become increasingly detached from and disinterested in music.

Positive Art: Artistic Expression and Appreciation as an Exemplary Vehicle for Flourishing

“…Thus, for each art form, the article explores the relevance of that particular modality to well-being, doing so by selectively highlighting indicative research and interventions. One must preface the presentation with the caveat that not all people find art rewarding, a “condition” that has been operationalized as “physical anhedonia” (Nusbaum, Silvia, Beaty, Burgin, & Kwapil, 2015, p. 228). Nevertheless, most people can arguably derive at least some value from art (in one form or another), as this article hopes to show.…”

If you’re funny and you know it: Personality, gender, and people’s ratings of their attempts at humor

“…For more details about the samples, see the original publications: NCSA (Diedrich et al, 2018), Physical Anhedonia (Nusbaum et al, 2015), CHC Humor (Christensen et al, 2018), Ha Ha 1-3 (Nusbaum et al, 2017, Studies 1-3), and RWA (Silvia et al, 2021). The first…”

“…The participants across the seven samples consisted of 1,133 adults who were native English speakers; 76% identified as female. Except for the first sample, which consisted of college students with a variety of arts majors enrolled at University of North Carolina School of the Arts (UNCSA; Sample 9 in Diedrich et al, 2018), all the participants were students enrolled in psychology courses at UNCG (Christensen et al, 2018;Nusbaum et al, 2015Silvia et al, 2021). Regarding power and planned sample size, we did not have a priori expectations for effect sizes, but from the beginning of our humor work we had planned to accumulate data on self-ratings in each study we ran until we had at least 500 people.…”

If You’re Funny and You Know It: Personality, Gender, and People’s Ratings of Their Attempts at Humor

“…Self-Rated Humor 7 college students with a variety of arts majors enrolled at University of North Carolina School of the Arts (Sample 9 in Diedrich et al, 2018), all the participants were students enrolled in psychology courses at UNCG (Christensen et al, 2018;Nusbaum et al, 2015Silvia et al, in press). Regarding power and planned sample size, we did not have a priori expectations for effect sizes, but from the beginning of our humor work we had planned to accumulate data on self-ratings in each study we ran until we had at least 500 people.…”

“…For age, the mean and min/max values are reported. For more details about the samples, see the original publications: NCSA (Diedrich et al, 2018), Physical Anhedonia (Nusbaum et al, 2015), CHC Humor (Christensen et al, 2018), Ha Ha 1-3 (Nusbaum et al, 2017, Studies 1-3), and RWA (Silvia et al, in press). The first six samples had raters score responses on a 1-5 scale; the sixth used a 0-2 scale.…”