Feeling moved by music: Investigating continuous ratings and acoustic correlates

The experience often described as feeling moved, understood chiefly as a social-relational emotion with social bonding functions, has gained significant research interest in recent years. Although listening to music often evokes what people describe as feeling moved, very little is known about the a...

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Main Authors: Jonna K. Vuoskoski, Janis H. Zickfeld, Vinoo Alluri, Vishnu Moorthigari, Beate Seibt
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Public Library of Science (PLoS) 2022-01-01
Series:PLoS ONE
Online Access:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8754323/?tool=EBI
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author Jonna K. Vuoskoski
Janis H. Zickfeld
Vinoo Alluri
Vishnu Moorthigari
Beate Seibt
author_facet Jonna K. Vuoskoski
Janis H. Zickfeld
Vinoo Alluri
Vishnu Moorthigari
Beate Seibt
author_sort Jonna K. Vuoskoski
collection DOAJ
description The experience often described as feeling moved, understood chiefly as a social-relational emotion with social bonding functions, has gained significant research interest in recent years. Although listening to music often evokes what people describe as feeling moved, very little is known about the appraisals or musical features contributing to the experience. In the present study, we investigated experiences of feeling moved in response to music using a continuous rating paradigm. A total of 415 US participants completed an online experiment where they listened to seven moving musical excerpts and rated their experience while listening. Each excerpt was randomly coupled with one of seven rating scales (perceived sadness, perceived joy, feeling moved or touched, sense of connection, perceived beauty, warmth [in the chest], or chills) for each participant. The results revealed that musically evoked experiences of feeling moved are associated with a similar pattern of appraisals, physiological sensations, and trait correlations as feeling moved by videos depicting social scenarios (found in previous studies). Feeling moved or touched by both sadly and joyfully moving music was associated with experiencing a sense of connection and perceiving joy in the music, while perceived sadness was associated with feeling moved or touched only in the case of sadly moving music. Acoustic features related to arousal contributed to feeling moved only in the case of joyfully moving music. Finally, trait empathic concern was positively associated with feeling moved or touched by music. These findings support the role of social cognitive and empathic processes in music listening, and highlight the social-relational aspects of feeling moved or touched by music.
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spelling doaj.art-5e6aec6f521b430489053e5c9f1e0beb2022-12-22T04:09:26ZengPublic Library of Science (PLoS)PLoS ONE1932-62032022-01-01171Feeling moved by music: Investigating continuous ratings and acoustic correlatesJonna K. VuoskoskiJanis H. ZickfeldVinoo AlluriVishnu MoorthigariBeate SeibtThe experience often described as feeling moved, understood chiefly as a social-relational emotion with social bonding functions, has gained significant research interest in recent years. Although listening to music often evokes what people describe as feeling moved, very little is known about the appraisals or musical features contributing to the experience. In the present study, we investigated experiences of feeling moved in response to music using a continuous rating paradigm. A total of 415 US participants completed an online experiment where they listened to seven moving musical excerpts and rated their experience while listening. Each excerpt was randomly coupled with one of seven rating scales (perceived sadness, perceived joy, feeling moved or touched, sense of connection, perceived beauty, warmth [in the chest], or chills) for each participant. The results revealed that musically evoked experiences of feeling moved are associated with a similar pattern of appraisals, physiological sensations, and trait correlations as feeling moved by videos depicting social scenarios (found in previous studies). Feeling moved or touched by both sadly and joyfully moving music was associated with experiencing a sense of connection and perceiving joy in the music, while perceived sadness was associated with feeling moved or touched only in the case of sadly moving music. Acoustic features related to arousal contributed to feeling moved only in the case of joyfully moving music. Finally, trait empathic concern was positively associated with feeling moved or touched by music. These findings support the role of social cognitive and empathic processes in music listening, and highlight the social-relational aspects of feeling moved or touched by music.https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8754323/?tool=EBI
spellingShingle Jonna K. Vuoskoski
Janis H. Zickfeld
Vinoo Alluri
Vishnu Moorthigari
Beate Seibt
Feeling moved by music: Investigating continuous ratings and acoustic correlates
PLoS ONE
title Feeling moved by music: Investigating continuous ratings and acoustic correlates
title_full Feeling moved by music: Investigating continuous ratings and acoustic correlates
title_fullStr Feeling moved by music: Investigating continuous ratings and acoustic correlates
title_full_unstemmed Feeling moved by music: Investigating continuous ratings and acoustic correlates
title_short Feeling moved by music: Investigating continuous ratings and acoustic correlates
title_sort feeling moved by music investigating continuous ratings and acoustic correlates
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8754323/?tool=EBI
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