A RT I C L E 61

Emotional responses to music: Psychology of Music

Psychology of Music
experience, expression, Copyright © 2009
Society for Education, Music
and physiology and Psychology Research
vol 37(1): 61–90 [0305-7356
(200901) 37:1; 61–90]
10.1177/0305735607086048
http://pom.sagepub.com

L A R S - O L O V L U N D Q V I S T, F R E D R I K C A R L S S O N
AND PER HILMERSSON
Ö R E B R O U N I V E R S I T Y, S W E D E N
PA T R I K N . J U S L I N
U P P S A L A U N I V E R S I T Y, S W E D E N

A crucial issue in research on music and emotion is whether music evokes

A B S T R AC T
genuine emotional responses in listeners (the emotivist position) or whether listeners
merely perceive emotions expressed by the music (the cognitivist position). To investigate
this issue, we measured self-reported emotion, facial muscle activity, and autonomic
activity in 32 participants while they listened to popular music composed with either a
happy or a sad emotional expression. Results revealed a coherent manifestation in the
experiential, expressive, and physiological components of the emotional response system,
which supports the emotivist position. Happy music generated more zygomatic facial
muscle activity, greater skin conductance, lower finger temperature, more happiness and
less sadness than sad music. The finding that the emotion induced in the listener was
the same as the emotion expressed in the music is consistent with the notion that music
may induce emotions through a process of emotional contagion.

KEYWORDS: autonomic activity, emotion, electromyography, emotional contagion, emotional

experience, facial expression, gender differences

One of the most commonly cited reasons for listening to music is that music induces
strong emotions (Juslin & Laukka, 2004). Yet, although experimental researchers
often use music as a means of mood induction (Västfjäll, 2002; Westerman, Spies,
Stahl, & Hesse, 1996), music has rarely been the subject of mainstream research on
emotions. One reason for this puzzling state of affairs could be that emotion
researchers assume that emotions evolved because they solved adaptive problems.
That is, emotions prepared the individual to deal with situations that were significant
for reproduction and survival (Cosmides & Tooby, 2000; Darwin, 1872/1998). Unlike
most other stimuli that evoke emotions, such as encounters with dangerous animals,
threats or facial expressions, music has no obvious, intrinsic survival value. Some
authors have therefore suggested that music cannot induce the ‘garden variety’ of
emotions, such as happiness and sadness (Kivy, 1990; Scherer, 2003). However, in
62 Psychology of Music 37(1)

view of the finding that listeners report experiencing such emotions while listening
to music (Gabrielsson, 2001; Juslin & Laukka, 2004; Sloboda, 1992; Wells &
Hakanen, 1991), further research is needed to determine whether such responses
may indeed occur.

Components of emotion and their measurement

In gathering, analyzing and classifying 92 definitions and nine skeptical statements
about the concept of emotion, Kleinginna and Kleinginna (1981) conclude that there
is little consistency among definitions of emotions and that many of them are vague.
Despite this lack of consensus on a precise definition of emotions (Ekman & Davidson,
1994), many researchers today agree that emotional responses are manifested in
three components: experience, expression, and physiology (Buck, 1994; Ekman,
1993; Izard, 1977; Lang, 1995; Levenson, 1994; Leventhal, 1984; Plutchik, 1993).
That is, emotions give rise to affective experiences such as feelings of happiness, sad-
ness, pleasure and displeasure; activate widespread physiological adjustments to the
evoking conditions; and lead to expressive behaviors that are often, but not always,
goal directed and adaptive.
There are two dominant models on how emotions are organized: the discrete
emotions model, which postulates that there is a small number of distinguishable
primary or basic emotions (Buck, 1988; Ekman, 1992; Izard, 1971, 1972, 1991; Tomkins,
1984), where each emotion is activated and regulated through different mechanisms
and processes (Izard, 1993; LeDoux, 1996), and the dimensional model, which from
a semantic perspective suggests that emotions are best described by a set of underlying
dimensions of emotion that are bipolar and consist of valence (pleasantness–unpleas-
antness) and arousal or activation (Green & Salovey, 1999; Russell, 1980; Russell &
Carroll, 1999; Watson & Tellegen, 1985, 1999).

E M O T I O NA L E X P E R I E N C E
Subjective experience, or feeling, has been seen as an essential element of the emo-
tional system as far back as the third century BC and Aristotle. The reason for its
importance, Scherer (2003) argues, is that it integrates all components and serves as
the basis for the conscious representation and regulation of emotions. Consequently,
the most straightforward approach to measuring emotions has been through self-
report. Self-reports may involve forced-choice formats, rating scales, or free phenom-
enological description. Self-report measures based on adjective lists, such as the
Differential Emotions Scale (Izard, Dougherty, Bloxom, & Kotch, 1974), have been
found to be reliable in differentiating among emotions induced through imagery
(Boyle, 1984), film segments (Philippot, 1993), and facial expressions (Lundqvist &
Dimberg, 1995). Similarly, studies of music have reported emotion differentiation in
self-report measures (for a review, see Juslin & Sloboda, 2001).
There are, however, a number of methodological problems with self-reports. One
is that participants may answer according to what they feel is the expected, socially
most acceptable response. This can be dealt with by using cover stories that divert the
participants from the true nature of experimental hypotheses (Aronson, Ellsworth,
Carlsmith, & Gonzales, 1990; Judd, Smith, & Kidder, 1991; Smith, 2000). Another
 Lundqvist et al.: Emotional responses to music 63

problem is that listeners may find it difficult to discriminate felt emotions from the
emotions perceived in the music (Kivy, 1990; Meyer, 1956). Clear instructions on
whether the listeners should focus on perceived or induced emotions could help to
alleviate this problem (Scherer & Zentner, 2001).

FAC I A L E X P R E S S I O N
The face plays a prominent role in human expression of emotions (Darwin,
1872/1998; Ekman, 1999), and distinct facial expressions are formed by the contrac-
tion of specific facial muscles (Hjortsjö, 1970). Electromyographic (EMG) measure-
ments over the facial muscle regions have been found to differentiate the valence of
affective reactions (Cacioppo, Petty, Losch, & Kim, 1986). For instance, activity over
the muscle regions of zygomaticus major (used when smiling) and corrugator supercilii
(used when frowning) can reliably indicate the degree of valence of emotional imagery
(Fridlund, Schwartz, & Fowler, 1984; Schwartz, Fair, Salt, Mandel, & Klerman, 1976),
facial expressions (Dimberg, 1982; Lundqvist, 1995; Lundqvist & Dimberg, 1995),
vocal expressions (Hietanen, Surakka, & Linnankoski, 1998), and auditory stimuli in
general (Bradley & Lang, 2000; Dimberg, 1990; Jäncke, Vogt, Musial, Lutz, &
Kalveram, 1996). Moreover, facial EMG has been used in selected studies of music
listening (Kallinen, 2004; Witvliet & Vrana, 1996; Witvliet, Vrana, & Webb-Talmadge,
1998). Consistent with the findings from studies of non-musical stimuli, these studies
found increased zygomatic activity to positively valenced music, and increased corru-
gator activity to negatively valenced music.

AU TO N O M I C AC T I V I T Y
One of the primary functions of the autonomic nervous system (ANS) is to provide
the body with the support to deal with behavioral demands, such as increased heart
rate in response to perceived danger. Similarly, a primary purpose of emotion is to
respond to behavioral demands that may require mobilization for action. Therefore,
some researchers have argued that at least some emotions should reflect specific auto-
nomic activity (e.g., Ekman, Levenson, & Friesen, 1983; Levenson, Ekman, & Friesen,
1990). However, the extent to which different emotions involve different patterns of
ANS activity is a controversial issue. Previous reviews of autonomic responses to non-
musical stimulation, such as film excerpts, imagery or facial activation, have revealed
relatively few cases where autonomic indices such as heart rate, skin conductance
and finger temperature were able to clearly discriminate among emotions (Cacioppo,
Klein, Berntson, & Hatfield, 1993).
Measurements of autonomic activity in music listeners have for over 100 years
been an attractive way to non-obtrusively explore how the mind processes music
(Bartlett, 1996). During this period, most studies have focused on arousal rather than
valence. Bartlett (1996) found in his review of more than 130 studies that, gener-
ally, percussive, fast tempo, highly rhythmic and loud dynamic music was found to
evoke increases in heart rate and muscle tension and thus regarded as high-arousing
music, whereas melodic, slow tempo, legato style and soft dynamic music was found
to evoke decreases in heart rate and muscle tension, as well as increases in skin tem-
perature and skin resistance (i.e., decreased skin conductance), and thus regarded as
low arousing music.
64 Psychology of Music 37(1)

Few physiological studies have investigated the valence dimension of musically

induced emotions. Krumhansl (1997) reported that fearful and happy music induced
higher heart rate than sad music, which has been demonstrated in other studies (e.g.,
Nyklícek, Thayer, & Van Doornen, 1997; Pignatiello, Camp, Elder, & Rasar, 1989).
Furthermore, happy music evoked greater skin conductance than fearful music,
which, in turn, evoked greater skin conductance than sad music. Moreover, happy
music induced higher skin temperature than sad and fearful music. This is consistent
with the results reported by McFarland and coworkers (McFarland, 1985; McFarland &
Kadish, 1991; McFarland & Kennison, 1989) who found that music with positive
valence induced increased temperature, while music with negative valence induced
decreased temperature. Decreased finger temperature is a result of vasomotor con-
striction because of increased activity in the sympathetic branch of the autonomic
system. Elevated activity in the sympathetic nervous system is common in response
to a negative event.

RESPONSE COHERENCE
As shown above, much research has been devoted to each of the emotion compo-
nents, but although many researchers regard response coherence (or ‘response syn-
chronization’), i.e., that an emotional reaction leads to a corresponding response in
all components, as an important defining characteristic of emotions (e.g., Scherer &
Zentner, 2001), few studies have demonstrated coherence among them (e.g., Mauss,
Levenson, McCarter, Wilhelm, & Gross, 2005). Hence, the extent to which coherence
exists has been a matter of some debate (Lang, 1988; Russell, 2003). It has been
argued that the three components of emotion do not necessarily correspond (Izard,
1992; Lang, Levin, Miller & Kozak, 1983). Absence of any one component is not usu-
ally seen as offering sufficient grounds for concluding that an emotion has not
occurred. For example, there are situations in which emotions are experienced; yet
no facial expressions are displayed (Ekman, 1972). Similarly, there are times when
avoidance behaviors occur independently of any corresponding subjective feeling
(LeDoux, 1996). In addition, some people may have a predominance of an experi-
ence–arousal link, others a predominance of an experience–expression link
(Pennebaker & Roberts, 1992), and both individual and situational characteristics
may influence the extent to which the components match. Other problems are to find
the adequate measures of emotional responding within the three response systems
and to take into account varying lags among the measures of emotional responding,
which may limit the indices of coherence, especially if the responses involved are
short-lived. Some researchers argue that each component has its own particular
determinants and that no single component is more fundamental to, or representative
of, emotional responses than any other component (Frijda, Ortony, Sonnemans, &
Clore, 1992).
Nevertheless, the validity of conclusions about the occurrence of an emotion clearly
increases when responses from all three components are measured, and when several
measures of each component are used (Ekman, 1977). Previous studies of music have
found modest evidence of coherence among different components (e.g., Krumhansl,
1997; Vaitl, Vehrs, & Sternagel, 1993). Clearly, evidence of a coherent emotional
response including several components would help to resolve the important issue of
 Lundqvist et al.: Emotional responses to music 65

whether music can induce genuine emotions in listeners (the emotivist position), or
whether listeners merely perceive emotions expressed by the music (the cognitivist
position). Because merely perceiving an emotion in music does not require an emotional
state in the listener that includes autonomic and expressive responses, only the emotivist
position would predict a coherent response in listeners’ experience, expression, and
physiology (Scherer & Zentner, 2001).

The present study

The goal of this study was to investigate listeners’ combined experiential, facial, and
autonomic responses to music. The stimuli consisted of popular music with either
happy or sad emotional expressions. Happiness and sadness are emotions that are eas-
ily expressed in music (Juslin & Laukka, 2003), and that also seem to be common
responses to music (Juslin & Laukka, 2004). Thus, it was regarded as beneficial to use
music with these expressions as stimuli.
Based on the three-component definition of emotion, the discrete emotions model
and previous emotion research, a number of a priori hypotheses were specified. It was
predicted that happy music, compared to sad music, would induce:

1. more self-rated happiness;

2. less self-rated sadness;
3. no differences in self-rated anger, fear, surprise or disgust;
4. more zygomatic muscle activity;
5. less corrugator muscle activity;
6. higher heart rate;
7. greater skin conductance;
8. higher finger temperature.
Observations supporting the hypotheses would indicate an overall coherent response
pattern and thus support the emotivist position.
In addition, we expected to find gender differences. Previous research has found
that male and female listeners differ with regard to their perception of the emotional
expression in music (Kamenetsky, Hill, & Trehub, 1997), their reasons for listening to
music (North, Hargreaves, & O’Neill, 2000), their decoding accuracy in non-verbal
communication (Fischer, Rodriguez Mosquera, van Vianen, & Manstead, 2004; Hall &
Matsumoto, 2004), their facial responses to facial expressions (Dimberg & Lundqvist,
1990) and auditory stimuli (Dimberg, 1990), and their finger temperature response to
musical stimuli (McFarland & Kadish, 1991). In line with these studies, we predicted
that female participants would show more pronounced responses than male
participants.

Method
PA RT I C I PA N T S
Thirty-two university students, 16 men with a mean age of 23.3 (SD ⫽ 3.66) and
16 women with a mean age of 22.9 (SD ⫽ 5.43), took part in the experiment. They
were musically untrained and participated on a voluntary basis.
66 Psychology of Music 37(1)

STIMULI
The stimuli consisted of simple pop songs in a singer-songwriter style sung and per-
formed on the acoustic guitar. Musical scores are given in the appendix. The music
was composed especially for this study in order to eliminate confounding effects
resulting from personal memories associated with the music (the ‘Darling, they’re
playing our song’ phenomenon; see Davies, 1978). One happy song and one sad song
each were performed by a male and a female singer, yielding a total of four musical
performances that were recorded onto a minidisc. The songs were performed with
lyrics to maintain the representativeness of this style of music. Previous research has
suggested that the music has a much larger impact on listeners’ responses than the
lyrics (Ali & Peynircio lu, 2006; Sousou, 1997) and that most listeners do not even
know what the lyrics of pop songs are about (Kone ni, 1984). Still, as a precaution,
we decided to use lyrics in English that were neutral in character (no emotion words
were allowed). The happy music lasted 140 seconds and the sad music 204 seconds
and the songs were played in full. For comparative reasons, only data obtained dur-
ing the first 140 seconds of the sad music were used in the subsequent analyses. The
happy music featured fast tempo, high sound level, and major mode, while the sad
music featured slow tempo, low sound level, and minor mode. These characteristics
have been associated with happy and sad expressions in previous research on emo-
tional expression in music (for a review, see Juslin & Laukka, 2004). The tempo of
the happy music was about twice that of the sad music. The sound level of the happy
music was, in Root Mean Square (RMS) power, 3.6 dB higher for the happy (–22.1 dB)
than for the sad music (–25.7 dB). To establish the face validity of the stimuli, a group
of students rated the emotion expressed in the music. These students did not partici-
pate in the experiment.

A P PA R AT U S
Bipolar facial EMG recordings were made from the left corrugator and zygomatic mus-
cle regions, in accordance with Fridlund and Cacioppo’s (1986) guidelines. Before
attaching the 4 mm miniature surface Ag/AgCl electrodes filled with EMG gel, we
cleansed the skin to reduce inter-electrode impedance. All impedance was reduced to
less than 10 k⍀ (Fridlund & Cacioppo, 1986). The electrodes were connected to
Contact Precision Instruments (CPI) bioamplifiers with low- and high-pass filters set
at 1000 Hz and 10 Hz, respectively. Notch filters set at 50 Hz were used to diminish
interference with the electric mains. The raw EMG signals were analyzed by means
of rectifier/integrators, with the time constant set at .01 seconds. The EMG was meas-
ured in micro Volts (␮V).
Heart rate was measured by attaching a photo-plethysmograph probe to the distal
phalanx of the third finger on the left hand. A CPI finger pulse amplifier analyzed the
signal and a CPI interval timer was used to produce interbeat interval data. The inter-
beat interval data were then transformed into heart rate data (bpm) (Papillo &
Shapiro, 1990).
Skin conductance level was recorded by attaching two 8 mm Ag/AgCl electrodes filled
with skin conductance electrode paste (manufacturer: Med Associates, Vermont, USA) to
the middle phalanx of the first and second finger of the participant’s left hand. The
 Lundqvist et al.: Emotional responses to music 67

electrodes were connected to a CPI self-balancing skin conductance amplifier. The skin
conductance was measured in micro Siemens (␮S).
Finger temperature was measured by attaching a temperature probe to the palmar
surface of the distal phalanx of the second finger of the left hand. The probe was
insulated to diminish disturbances related to variability in room temperature. During
the study, the room temperature was 22 ⬚C ⫾ 1 ⬚C.
All output signals were digitized at 10Hz per channel by a 12-bit CPI A/D con-
verter and stored on disk. All measurement equipment was placed in an adjacent
room to eliminate auditory interference and distraction.
Self-reported emotional experience was measured by an abbreviated Swedish version
of the Differential Emotions Scale (DES; Izard et al., 1974). The ratings, which meas-
ured experience of sadness, anger, fear, disgust, surprise, happiness and interest, were
each represented by three items. Sadness was represented by (Swedish translation in
brackets) sad (ledsen), downhearted (nedstämd) and blue (vemodig); anger by angry
(arg), irritated (irriterad) and mad (ilsken); fear by fearful (ängslig), scared (skrämd) and
afraid (rädd); disgust by disgusted (äcklad), turned off (känner avsky), and repulsed (känner
motbjudande); surprise by surprised (förvånad), amazed (häpen), and astonished (över-
raskad); happiness by joyful (lycklig), happy (glad), and amused (upprymd); interest by
interested (intresserad), concentrated (koncentrerad), and alert (uppmärksam).
The participants were asked to indicate the degree of emotional intensity on 100 mm
visual analog scales that were labeled from ‘not at all’, ‘slightly’, ‘moderately’, ‘rather
strong’, to ‘very strong’. The scores of the three items that represented each emotion
were totaled and could range from 0 to 300.

P RO C E D U R E
The participants were tested individually in a soundproofed room, and listened to the
music through headphones. The loudness was set at a comfortable level by the exper-
imenters at the beginning of the study, but no measures of the actual dB level at the
headphones were made. When the participants arrived at the laboratory, they were
informed that the aim of the experiment was to investigate physiological reactions to
music. To draw attention away from their facial muscles, the participants were told
that the electrodes attached to their face were used to index sweat gland activity. To
mask the purpose of the DES questionnaire, which was to measure the effects of
music on emotional experience, the participants were told that because different
participants were tested at different times of the day, they might differ with regard to
such things as tiredness and mood, and according to standardized experimental
control procedures, they were therefore required to rate their emotions on multiple
occasions (Lundqvist & Dimberg, 1995).
After receiving the instructions and having their electrodes attached, the partici-
pants completed the first DES questionnaire. Next, the four musical excerpts were
played in a counterbalanced order. After each excerpt, a new DES questionnaire was
completed. We preferred to collect self-reports in between the stimuli in order to min-
imize interference with ongoing measurement of facial and autonomic activity.
Previous research has suggested that continuous and asynchronous response formats
produce fairly similar results (e.g., Krumhansl, 1997; Schubert, 2001). Consequently,
68 Psychology of Music 37(1)

each participant completed the questionnaire a total of five times. After the experi-
ment, the participants were briefed and interviewed regarding the instructions given
at their arrival. None of the participants reported that they had been aware of the
facial EMG or that the real purpose of the DES questionnaire had been to measure
their emotional response to the music.

D E S I G N A N D S TAT I S T I CA L A NA LYS E S
Before analysis, the EMG and ANS data were subdivided into time-blocks. Each time-
block consisted of the mean activity during 5 seconds. The 5-second period immedi-
ately before the onset of each musical excerpt served as the pre-stimulus period. The
data were scored as change scores between the pre-stimulus period and the time-
blocks during music listening. Hence, both increasing and decreasing reactions were
possible. There were 28 time-blocks per musical stimulus. For the DES ratings,
changes in the scores between the ratings after each musical stimulus and the
ratings before the musical presentation were calculated. Data were aggregated across
both versions of the happy music and the sad music because no significant effect of
singer was found.
The EMG and ANS data were analyzed using 2 ⫻ 2 ⫻ 28 split-plot factorial
ANOVAs with gender of the listener (male/female) as between-subjects factor and
music (happy/sad) and time-block (28) as within-subjects factors. The ANOVAs were
subjected to Greenhouse–Geisser corrections (Greenhouse & Geisser, 1959). Emotional
experience ratings were analyzed by 2 ⫻ 2 split plot factorial ANOVAs, with gender of
the listener as between-subjects factor and music as within-subjects factor.
All statistical analyses were performed using SPSS for Windows, version 15.0 (man-
ufactured by SPSS Inc., Chicago, IL), and p-values less than .05 were considered sig-
nificant. Partial eta-squared (␩2p ) was calculated in order to estimate the degree of
association (i.e., effect size) between the stimuli and the dependent variables. Cohen
(1988) provides the following guidelines for interpreting the eta-squared value: .010 ⫽small
effect size; .059 ⫽medium effect size; and .138 ⫽large effect size.

Results
E M O T I O NA L E X P E R I E N C E
The results of the ANOVAs of the listeners’ ratings of emotional experience, as shown
in Table 1, revealed significant main effects of music on the sadness ratings and on
the happiness ratings. No main or interaction effects were obtained for the other rat-
ing scales, or for any main or interaction effects that involved gender of the listener.
Happy music induced more happiness than sad music, which, in turn, induced more
sadness than happy music (see Table 2). The size of these effects were large, ␩p2 ⫽ .273
and ␩p2 ⫽.387, respectively. The mean changes of intensity in rated happiness and sad-
ness in absolute values were highly similar (t(31) ⫽.308, p ⫽.76).

FAC I A L E X P R E S S I O N
The overall ANOVA results for the facial EMG data (see Table 3) revealed significant
main effects of music and time-block on the zygomatic activity readings. As shown
in Figure 1, happy music evoked more zygomatic activity than sad music. Zygomatic
 Lundqvist et al.: Emotional responses to music 69

TA B L E 1 F-ratios for listeners’ ratings of emotional experience to happy and sad music

Source d.f. Anger Disgust Fear Happiness Sadness Surprise Interest

Gender of 1 ⬍1 1.87 1.41 1.82 3.83 ⬍1 1.48
listener (G)
swgr 30 (926.72) (392.71) (141.52) (6561.92) (1337.22) (1951.35) (8208.22)
Music (M) 1 2.99 ⬍1 ⬍1 11.28** 18.94*** ⬍1 ⬍1
M⫻G 1 ⬍1 ⬍1 ⬍1 ⬍1 ⬍1 ⬍1 ⬍1
M ⫻ swgr 30 (229.31) (77.80) (99.11) (529.75) (261.09) (299.49) (797.68)
Notes: swgr ⫽ subjects within groups.
*p ⬍ .05. **p ⬍ .01. ***p ⬍ .001.

2 Means and standard deviations of emotional experience

TA B L E
ratings (0–300) to happy and sad music
Music
Scale Happy Sad
Anger M 16.3 9.8
SD 28.7 17.2
Disgust M 5.3 5.4
SD 12.1 18.2
Fear M 3.8 6.0
SD 7.9 13.3
Happiness M 115.3 96.0
SD 59.1 61.4
Sadness M 16.7 34.3
SD 22.6 34.8
Surprise M 24.4 22.3
SD 34.6 31.6
Interest M 131.1 125.0
SD 68.7 66.2

activity initially increased in response to the music and then gradually decreased.
A 95 percent confidence interval showed that the initial zygomatic increase was
significant only for the happy music, while the decrease at the end of the music was
significant only for the sad music. Although overall analyses of corrugator activity
did not reveal any significant differences between happy and sad music, a 95 percent
confidence interval was estimated for explorative purposes. As shown in Figure 2,
both happy and sad music elicited an initial corrugator activity increase. This increase
was significantly greater than zero for the sad music only. It is noteworthy that cor-
rugator activity decreased toward the end of both the happy and the sad excerpts,
but that the decrease was more pronounced for happy music. The partial eta-squared
of the significant music and time-block effects of the zygomatic measures were
medium to large (␩p2 ⫽ .128 and ␩p2 ⫽ .176, respectively).
70 Psychology of Music 37(1)

TA B L E 3 F-ratios for listeners’ facial electromyographic and autonomic activity to happy and
sad music
Facial EMG activity Autonomic activity

Source d.f. Corrugator Zygomatic SCL FT d.f.a HR HR

Gender of listener (G) 1 ⬍1 ⬍1 1.64 ⬍1 1 ⬍1
swgr 30 (689.90) (379.09) (5.04) (1.32) 27 (1224.24)
Music (M) 1 ⬍1 4.40* 6.53* 4.24* 1 ⬍1
M⫻G 1 ⬍1 1.10 ⬍1 1.47 1 ⬍1
M ⫻ swgr 30 (583.04) (735.66) (.67) (1.39) 27 (748.06)
Time-block (T) 27 1.90 6.43*** 40.40*** 11.90*** 27 1.196
T⫻G 27 ⬍1 1.47 1.38 ⬍1 27 ⬍1
T ⫻ swgr 810 (12.00) (10.87) (.034) (.033) 729 (14.29)
M⫻T 27 ⬍1 ⬍1 1.18 2.75 27 1.24
M⫻T⫻G 27 1.38 1.07 ⬍1 1.43 27 ⬍1
M ⫻ T ⫻ swgr 810 (11.65) (8.21) (.006) (.019) 729 (10.49)

Notes: swgr ⫽ subjects within groups; SCL ⫽ skin conductance level; FT ⫽ finger temperature; HR ⫽
heart rate.
a Three subjects were excluded due to finger plethysmograph malfunction.

*p ⬍.05 and ***p ⬍.001.

2
Mean Zygomatic Change (µV)

95% CI
1

21

Music
22
Happy
23
Sad
24
Pre 20 40 60 80 100 120 140
Time (s)

FIGURE 1 Mean zygomatic muscle region change in response to happy and sad music.
 Lundqvist et al.: Emotional responses to music 71

95% CI
1
Mean Corrugator Change (µV)

⫺1

Music
⫺2
Happy

⫺3 Sad
Pre 20 40 60 80 100 120 140
Time (s)

FIGURE 2 Mean corrugator muscle region change in response to happy and sad music.

AU TO N O M I C AC T I V I T Y
The ANOVA results for ANS activity presented in Table 3 revealed significant main
effects for music and time-block on both finger temperature and skin conductance
level. No significant effects on heart rate were found. However, an analysis of the
heart rate changes during the first 15 seconds of the music showed a significant
quadratic (i.e., U-shaped) trend (FQuadratic (1, 28) ⫽ 19.41, p ⬍.0001, ␩p2 ⫽ .463),
confirming the initial deceleration–acceleration response pattern seen in Figure 3. As
indicated by the ANOVA results in Table 3, and as also demonstrated in Figure 4, sad
music induced a greater finger temperature change than happy music. The effect size
was medium (␩p2 ⫽ .124). Note also that both happy and sad music induced an ini-
tial decrease in finger temperature, followed by a large increase (FQuadratic (1, 30) ⫽
13.00, p ⬍ .001, ␩p2 ⫽ .302). The initial decrease in temperature associated with
happy music and the rebound increase for sad as well as happy music were signifi-
cantly different from zero, as shown by the 95 percent confidence interval (Figure 4).
Finally, happy music elicited significantly greater skin conductance levels than sad
music (Figure 5). The effect size was large (␩p2 ⫽ .179). Skin conductance levels
decreased monotonically during listening (FLinear (1, 30) ⫽ 50.93, p ⬍ .0001, ␩p2 ⫽ .629),
and this trend was more pronounced for sad music.
72 Psychology of Music 37(1)

Mean Heart Rate Change (bpm) 2 95% CI

⫺1
Music

⫺2 Happy

Sad
⫺3
Pre 20 40 60 80 100 120 140

Time (s)

FIGURE 3 Mean heart rate change in response to happy and sad music.

.3
Mean Finger Temperature Change (°C)

.2

.1

Music
0.0

Happy

95% CI
Sad
⫺.1
Pre 20 40 60 80 100 120 140

Time (s)

FIGURE 4 Mean finger temperature change in response to happy and sad music.
 Lundqvist et al.: Emotional responses to music 73

.1
95% CI

0.0
Mean Skin Conductance Change (µS)

⫺.1

⫺.2

⫺.3

⫺.4 Music

⫺.5 Happy

⫺.6 Sad
Pre 20 40 60 80 100 120 140
Time (s)

FIGURE 5 Mean skin conductance change in response to happy and sad music.

Discussion
In this study, we investigated whether music is able to induce genuine emotions in lis-
teners. As predicted, happy music, compared to sad music, generated more happiness
(Hypothesis 1), less sadness (Hypothesis 2), no significant differences in any of the
other four experience ratings (Hypothesis 3), more zygomatic activity (Hypothesis 4),
greater skin conductance (Hypothesis 7) and lower finger temperature (Hypothesis 8).
The relative magnitude of the effect of music on the emotional response system was
in most cases large in terms of Cohen’s (1988) guidelines, suggesting that music is a
potent elicitor of emotions in listeners. However, contrary to our predictions, there
were no differences in either corrugator activity or heart rate. Thus, in all but two of
the measures, a difference in the predicted direction was observed. In none of the
measures was there a difference in a direction opposite from that predicted.
Consequently, the results indicate a coherent manifestation in the experiential,
expressive, and physiological components of the emotional response system, which
supports the emotivist position in the debate on musical emotions (Krumhansl, 1997;
cf. Kivy, 1990). A second aim of the study was to investigate gender differences in
emotional reactions to music. However, no gender differences were found in any of
the measures.
74 Psychology of Music 37(1)

E M O T I O NA L E X P E R I E N C E
As predicted, happy music induced greater feelings of happiness, whereas sad music
induced greater feelings of sadness. No differences were found in the other emotions
measured. This is consistent with the differential emotions theory (e.g., Izard, 1977),
because sad music induced the specific emotion of sadness, rather than a general
negative emotional response also involving increases in anger, fear and disgust. It
should further be noted that the mean intensity changes in absolute values of the
happiness ratings were highly similar to the intensity changes in the sadness rat-
ings. This is important, because it eliminates overall differences in experiential inten-
sity as a confounding factor for the observed differences in facial EMG and
autonomic activity.

FAC I A L E X P R E S S I O N
The finding that happy music evoked greater zygomatic activity than sad music is con-
sistent with previous studies of musical emotions (Kallinen, 2004; Witvliet & Vrana,
1996; Witvliet, Vrana, & Webb-Talmadge, 1998). This result, as well as results from
previous studies of vocal (Hietanen, Surakka, & Linnankoski, 1998) and facial expres-
sion (Lundqvist & Dimberg, 1995), suggests that the activity over the zygomatic mus-
cle region is a sensitive indicator of the experienced valence of emotional stimuli.
It was predicted that sad music would evoke greater corrugator muscle activity
than happy music. No such difference was found. Instead, both happy and sad music
induced a short burst of corrugator activity at the beginning of each musical excerpt.
The corrugator activity was significantly greater than the pre-stimulus levels only in
conjunction with sad music and only during the first five seconds after onset of the
stimulus. This response pattern suggests a startle reaction, similar to that described
by Witvliet and Vrana (1996) in connection with other musical stimuli. According to
them, the magnitude of the startle is more pronounced in low- rather than high-
arousal conditions. Since the corrugator responses to sad music in the present study
were not at the same level as the self-reported sadness, it seems possible that the sad
music used here lacked certain features necessary for the corrugator muscle to differ-
entiate among happy and sad music. One possible explanation, based on the results
of Witvliet and Vrana (1996), is that the arousal evoked by the music moderates
emotional responses in facial muscles. Consequently, the slower tempo and lower
sound level of the sad music may have induced a lower arousal level in the listeners
and thus reduced the music’s emotional impact to such an extent that it failed to
induce corrugator increases. Further research using music evoking varying degrees
of arousal and valence is needed to clarify this issue.

AU TO N O M I C AC T I V I T Y
As predicted, happy music evoked greater skin conductance levels than sad music.
Contrary to predictions, happy music induced lower finger temperature than sad
music. In previous studies that measured finger temperature responses to music, pos-
itively valenced music was found to induce a temperature increase, while negatively
valenced music was found to induce a decrease (Krumhansl, 1997). McFarland (1985),
who also reported on the level of arousal evoked by the music, suggested that negatively
valenced, high-arousing music induces a temperature decrease, while positively
 Lundqvist et al.: Emotional responses to music 75

valenced, low-arousing music induces a temperature increase. This result is consistent

with studies of relaxation, showing that low-arousing music induces a finger tempera-
ture increase (Guzzetta, 1989). Finger temperature changes attributed to the valence
expressed in the music in earlier research may therefore in actual fact be an effect of
the arousing level of the music. This would explain why the sad and low-arousing music
in this study was associated with high finger temperature, while the negative and high-
arousing music in previous studies was associated with low temperature.
We also predicted that happy music would induce higher heart rate than sad
music, but found no such difference. However, a deceleration–acceleration pattern
was observed at the beginning of each stimulus. This probably reflects an orienting
response, revealing a shift in the participant’s attention (e.g., Graham & Clifton, 1966;
Sokolov & Cacioppo, 1997). The orienting response was similar in magnitude for both
happy and sad music.

Theoretical implications
The results of the present study support the emotivist perspective. However, a crucial
question is what type of psychological process may give rise to the observed response
patterns. Several mechanisms have been suggested to explain how music induces
emotions: brain stem responses, evaluative conditioning, emotional contagion, mental
imagery, episodic memory and musical expectancy (Juslin & Västfjäll, in press). This
study was not designed to differentiate among theories of musical emotions, although
some of the proposed mechanisms appear less likely in the present case. For example,
the use of music composed especially for this study reduces the plausibility of an
explanation in terms of associations or memories to a specific piece of music. It could
be argued that the music was conventional, and that effects resulting from general
associations with the musical genre therefore cannot be completely ruled out.
However, what is particularly important about the present results is that the emotions
evoked in the listeners were the same as those expressed by the music. This suggests
that the emotional reactions to the music were somehow evoked by the emotional
expression of the music. A growing body of research has shown that several aspects
of musical structure may be used to convey different emotions to listeners, and that
there are similarities between musically and vocally expressed emotions (e.g., Juslin &
Laukka, 2003). Consequently, some authors have proposed that listeners may react
emotionally to music through a process of emotional contagion (Juslin, 2001;
Scherer & Zentner, 2001), similar to what has been found with regard to facial
(Hatfield, Cacioppo, & Rapson, 1994; Lundqvist & Dimberg, 1995; Wild, Erb, &
Bartels, 2001) and vocal (Hietanen et al., 1998) expression. That is, the listener per-
ceives the emotion expressed in the music and then internally mimics the expression,
which through afferent physiological feedback leads to induction of the same
emotion (Dibben, 2004; Scherer & Zentner, 2001).
In conclusion, the present study provides support for genuine emotional responses
to music, which is consistent with the emotivist position and with an explanation in
terms of emotional contagion. Further research on emotional contagion with regard
to music seems warranted, and would benefit from an approach that measures sev-
eral emotion components both simultaneously and over time.
76 Psychology of Music 37(1)

AC K N OW L E D G E M E N T S

We thank two anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments on a previous version of this
article.

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Appendix: Musical scores

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90 Psychology of Music 37(1)

L A R S - O L O V L U N D Q V I S T received his PhD in Psychology from the University of Uppsala, Sweden.

He is Associate Professor in Psychology at Örebro University and Research Director at the Centre
of Rehabilitation Research at Örebro University Hospital. His research interest is in the area of
emotional communication, with an emphasis on modelling underlying mechanisms and individual
differences in emotional contagion. His research includes non-clinical as well as clinical samples,
particularly individuals with autism spectrum disorders and challenging behaviors.
Address: Centre for Rehabilitation Research, Box 1613, SE-701 16 Örebro, Sweden.
[email: [email protected]]

F R E D R I K C A R L S S O N received his BSc in Psychology and Social Studies at Örebro University.

Currently he is a teacher of psychology at the Viktor Rydberg School Foundation in Stockholm.
Address: Viktor Rydberg School Foundation, Norrtullsgatan 41–43, SE-113 45 Stockholm,
Sweden. [email: [email protected]]

PER HILMERSSON received his BSc in Psychology and History at Örebro University. Currently
he is working as an assistant to Vice-President Margot Wallström in the European Commission.
Address: Avenue Brugmann 281, 1180 Brussels, Belgium. [email: [email protected]]

PAT R I K N . J U S L I N
is Associate Professor of Psychology at Uppsala University, Sweden, where
he teaches courses on music, emotion, perception, and research methodology. He completed
his PhD in 1998 under the supervision of Alf Gabrielsson, and has since published numerous
articles in the areas of expression in music performance, emotional responses to music, music
education, and emotion in speech. In 2001, he edited the volume Music and Emotion: Theory
and Research together with John Sloboda. Juslin is a member of the International Society for
Research on Emotions. Alongside his work as a researcher, he has also worked professionally
as a guitar player.
Address: Department of Psychology, Uppsala University, Box 1225, SE-751 42 Uppsala, Sweden.
[email: [email protected]]