2020/01/06 by Alan Cowen, Xia Fang, Disa Sauter +1 · 3 citations
Arts and Humanities · Neuroscience · #Aesthetic Perception and Analysis #Media Influence and Health #Neuroscience and Music Perception
paper · pdf · doi:10.1073/pnas.1910704117
openalex publication_date 2020/01/06 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/22
= 1,258) participants listened to 2,168 music samples and reported on the specific feelings (e.g., "angry," "dreamy") or broad affective features (e.g., valence, arousal) that they made individuals feel. Using large-scale statistical tools, we uncovered 13 distinct types of subjective experience associated with music in both cultures. Specific feelings such as "triumphant" were better preserved across the 2 cultures than levels of valence and arousal, contrasting with theoretical claims that valence and arousal are building blocks of subjective experience. This held true even for music selected on the basis of its valence and arousal levels and for traditional Chinese music. Furthermore, the feelings associated with music were found to occupy continuous gradients, contradicting discrete emotion theories. Our findings, visualized within an interactive map (https://www.ocf.berkeley.edu/∼acowen/music.html) reveal a complex, high-dimensional space of subjective experience associated with music in multiple cultures. These findings can inform inquiries ranging from the etiology of affective disorders to the neurological basis of emotion.