Emotions and associations
evoked by unfamiliar music
Richard Parncutt and Manuela M. Marin
University of Graz, Austria
XIX Congress of the International Association of Empirical Aesthetics
University of Avignon, August 31, 2006
Current research on music & emotion
• revival of topic in past 10-20 years
– important role of music in everyday life
– good medium for studying emotion in general
– ease of making judgements and affective responses
(Gaver & Mandler 1987)
• …but few clear findings:
– difficult to observe (e.g., measurement, laboratory vs. “real world”
situations)
– unclear relation to non-musical theories of emotion
– inter- und intra-individual variability (Juslin & Sloboda 2001)
• research focuses on familiar music
(e.g., 9th ICMPC, Bologna, August 22-26, 2006)
Familiar versus foreign music
Questions
• familiarity influences music appreciation
(Iwanga et al. 1996, Newman et al. 1995)
• listeners tend to like familiar music
(North & Hargreaves 1995, Peretz et al. 1998, Ali 2005)
Why?
– difficult question since sometimes negative emotions are preferred
(e.g., Schubert 1996, Levinson 1982)
• What specific emotions are associated with familiar
versus foreign music?
– How are these related to liking?
– How do these depend on gender and style?
implications for research on Otherness in (ethno-) musicology and
cultural studies
Emotion, familiarity & liking (1)
• Preference feedback hypothesis
and optimal complexity
- positive relationship between liking and voluntary
exposure
(e.g., Zajonc 1969, North & Hargreaves 1995, Ali 2005)
- inverted-U relationship between liking and
arousal potential (subjective complexity,
familiarity)
(Berlyne 1971, 1974)
Emotion, familiarity & liking (2)
• Music & Russell’s
circumplex model of emotion (1980):
2 dimensions of arousal & pleasantness
- non-vocal music: liking and arousal level predict emotion
(North & Hargreaves 1997)
- songs: arousal, pleasantness & familiarity may predict
emotion best, not liking (Ritossa & Rickard 2004)
- familiarity may bias ratings of pleasantness, arousal, and
emotion in music, in addition to liking (Ritossa & Rickard 2004)
Emotion, familiarity & liking (3)
• cue redundancy model (Balkwill & Thompson 1999)
– judgements of emotions in unfamiliar music:
acoustic cues more important than culture-specific
(Balkwill et al. 2004)
• diversity of emotions
– more diverse emotions and stronger experience in familiar music
(Iwanaga et al. 1996, Gabrielsson & Lindström Wik 2003)
• role of cognition
– liking and intensity of emotion may depend more on cognitive
factors than familiarity
(Ali 2005, Fung 2004)
• role of style
– liking for a piece may depend more on style than piece
(North & Hargreaves 1997)
Emotion, gender & expertise
• Task: link specific emotion words to music
– no significant gender differences in children and adults
(Kratus 1993, Robazza et al. 1994, Kallinen 2005)
• Task: rate emotional qualities of music
– no differences between musicians and non-musicians
(Kreutz et al. 2002)
• Task: rating complexity and liking
– musical expertise may dissolve the relationship between liking and
complexity
(Orr & Ohlsson 2005)
Emotion & language
• difficulty of defining
– concept of emotion
– specific emotions
• words used to describe emotions can also be
– value judgements
– metaphors
• …and refer to personal characteristics:
– physical appearance
– arousal and bodily states
– personality
• little agreement on which words denote „emotions“ and
which do not
(Plutchik 2002)
• clustering of emotion words into broad categories
– little agreement on category names and correspondences
Method of self-report (free description)
Advantages
• most direct form of
evidence
Disadvantages
• limited to participant’s
language
• sensitive to subtleties and • vague correspondences
peak experiences
• multiple meanings
• large vocabulary
• not restricted to basic
emotions or valence/arousal
• individual differences
gradations
(Juslin & Sloboda 2001, Plutchik 2002)
Shaver et al. (1987): emotion prototypes
• hierarchical structure of English emotion lexicon:
-
lists of emotion names (Averill 1975, Davitz 1969, …)
prototypicality ratings of emotionness
similarity sorting and
hierarchical cluster analysis: basic categories, subcategories
 135 emotion words sorted by “basic level concepts”:
love, joy, surprise, anger, sadness, fear
Our definitions
• Emotion word
– a word that refers to any aspect of emotional
experience
• Emotion noun
– noun derived from emotion word(s)
• Emotion category
– cluster of emotion words, e.g.
• basic emotions (e.g. fear)
• arousal levels (e.g. movement)
Context & design
• course “Listening to broaden musical horizons”
– first year of musicology program, Uni Graz
– compulsory unit in program
• 43 students (23 males, 20 females), compulsory attendance
• 13 weekly sessions @ 90 minutes
• student pairs selected/presented styles (vocal & non-vocal)
• 17 styles x 3 examples x few minutes
Criteria for selection of examples
Instructions to students
Style should:
•
•
•
•
•
•
be homogeneous
be acoustically recognizable
be accepted as “music” by some group
be unfamiliar, interesting, challenging for other students
contain no major/minor triads or scales
be unsuitable as background music for parties
Examples should:
• be performed/composed by >2 diff. performers or groups
Labels of selected styles
11 modern western styles
early computer music
Peter Lackner’s canonical principle
instrumental music of Olga Neuwirth
jew’s harp
Japanoise
Clicks’n Cuts
Beat Furrer
György Ligeti – Steve Reich
Ambient Sound
Free Jazz
Stomp
6 non-western styles
Tibetan Buddhism
Huli
Aka pygmies
Sioux Indians
Capoeira
Shakti
Procedure
Listeners were told nothing about the style.
During/after each example (~ 3 min),
they provided data on paper:
• Qualitative data
– emotions experienced
– associations evoked
– sound sources
– pitch-time structures
• Quantitative data
– (un-) familiarity as music
1 = sounds familiar, 2 = neutral, 3 = sounds foreign
– (dis-) liking as music
1 = I like it, 2 = neutral, 3 = I do not like it
Analysis of qualitative emotion data (1)
1. Selection of emotion words
• list first word in emotion field of each response sheet
• 3 examples x 17 styles x ca. 35 students =
ca. 1600 words
• eliminate repetitions  760 words
• convert all words to nouns (in German): emotion nouns
• group nouns with same stem and similar meaning
• eliminate noun groups that occur less than 3 times
• Result: 210 emotion nouns
Analysis of qualitative emotion data (2)
2. Assignment of emotion nouns to categories
10 native German speakers (or groups):
– group 210 nouns into any number of groups,
– find one noun as a group labels
– comparison and negotiation  21 emotion categories
10 different native German speakers:
– assign 210 emotion nouns to the 21 emotion categories
– assignment is valid only if most participants agree
– 123 of the 210 were assigned, forget the rest
Return to original 1600 emotion words: assign 890 words
to 21 emotion categories and forget the rest!
Emotion category
Original
German
English
translation
Number of
assigned
nouns
Total no. of
occurrences
Equivalent
entry in list of
Shaver (2001)
Abscheu
antipathy
3
3
disgust
Aggression
aggression
8
41
irritation
Angst
fear
15
152
fear
Bewegung
movement
15
50
-
Chaos
chaos
4
61
-
Feierlichkeit
festivity
3
12
-
Fremdheit
foreignness
1
3
-
Freude
joy
11
118
joy
Hast
haste
5
43
-
Intensität
intensity
7
72
-
Langeweile
boredom
10
88
-
Emotion category
Number of
assigned
nouns
Total no. of
occurrences
Equivalent
entry in list
of Shaver
(2001)
Original
German
English
translation
Leid
suffering
3
26
suffering
Liebe
love
4
8
love
Neugierde
curiosity
3
25
-
Ruhe
calm
7
88
contentment?
Spaß
fun
3
18
zest?
Spiritualität
spirituality
5
25
enthralment?
Traurigkeit
sadness
8
32
sadness
Überraschung
surprise
1
2
surprise
Wahnsinn
madness
4
9
-
Wut
anger
3
16
anger
Difference between (unfamiliar) musical
and everyday (Shaver) emotions
• good correspondence with Shaver’s basic categories
love, joy, surprise, anger, sadness, fear (“basic emotions”)
• subcategories:
- correspondence: suffering, irritation, disgust
- no direct correspondence: lust, longing, zest, contentment, optimism,
disappointment, pride, horror, nervousness, torment, neglect
BUT…most of these concepts occurred in our list of 210 emotion nouns!
• in Shaver’s list but not ours:
relief, envy, shame, sympathy
• in our list but not Shaver’s:
chaos, madness, curiosity, festivity, calm, movement, haste, intensity,
boredom, foreignness
- some of these tend to describe arousal and potency/dominance
(cf .Osgood, Suci & Tannenbaum 1957, Russell 1978, 1980, Schlosberg
1954)
Frequency of the 21 emotion categories
(all data)
• specifically musical emotions?
(e.g., Scherer et al. 2001-02, Kreutz 2002)
- biased toward foreign music?
festivity
antipathy
surprise
fear
love
foreignness
madness
fun
anger
curiosity spirituality
suffering
joy
sadness
aggression
haste
movement
calm
chaos
boredom
intensity
fe
st
iv
ity
s l
fo urp ove
re ri
i s
an gne e
sp tip ss
iri ath
m tua y
ad lit
ne y
ss
fu
a
cu ng n
su rios er
ffe ity
s ri
m adn ng
ov e
em ss
ag h en
gr as t
es te
si
on
c
in a
te lm
ns
ity
ch joy
bo a
re o s
do
m
fe
ar
frequency
Frequency of 21 emotion categories for
11 modern western styles
140
120
100
80
Major emotion categories:
fear, boredom, chaos, joy,
intensity, calm, aggression
60
40
20
0
emotion categories
fo
re
ig
su nes
m rpr s
ad ise
ne
an ss
ge
s u lo r
ffe ve
cu rin
rio g
s
c h ity
ao
s
s a fu
dn n
e
ag fes ss
gr tivi
es ty
si
ha on
s
s p f te
iri ea
tu r
in a li
m ten ty
ov si
e t
bo m y
re en
do t
ca m
lm
jo
y
frequency
Frequency of 21 emotion categories for
6 non-western styles
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
Major emotion categories:
joy, calm, boredom, movement,
intensity, spirituality, fear
emotion categories
Familiarity versus liking
• correlation 0.36 for modern western styles and
0.27 for non-western styles (both p<0.001)
(replication of Peretz et al. 1998, Ali 2005)
neutral I don’t like it
11 modern western styles
I like it
sounds familiar
105
87
58
neutral
95
181
134
sounds foreign
47
79
246
6 non-western styles
I like it
sounds familiar
131
46
49
neutral
70
91
44
sounds foreign
32
28
58
neutral I don’t like it
Familiarity versus liking for 18 emotion
categories and both styles (N>10)
3
disliked
suffering
anger
chaos
boredom
madness
spirituality
fear
sadness
2
aggression
curiosity
intensity
festivity
liked
movement
joy
fun
haste
calm
love
1
1
2
familiar
3
foreign
Effect of style on familiarity and liking
Modern western styles are more foreign and disliked (p < 0.001 )
I don‘t like it
3
2,5
2
I like it
1,5
modern western styles
non-western styles
1
1
familiar
1,5
2
2,5
foreign
3
I don't like it
Individual emotion categories –
effect of style on familiarity & liking
boredom
N = 55 vs. 33
lik.: p<0.1, non-western
3
No differences for
2,5
haste
2
aggression
movement
aggression (N=29 vs. 12)
joy (N=49 vs. 69)
movement (N=22 vs. 27)
haste (N=27 vs. 16)
intensity (N=48 vs. 24)
I like it
intensity
1,5
joy
1
1
1,5
familiar
fun
N = 9 vs. 9
fam.: p=0.05
non-western
2
calm*
N = 45 vs. 43
fam.: p<0.1
lik.: p<0.05
non-western
2,5
3
foreign
modern western styles
non-western styles
Note: only emotion categories of comparable size were considered in the analysis
3
p < 0.001
mean ratings
foreign/disliked
Familiarity, liking & gender
p = 0.010
2,5
p = 0.800 p = 0.004
2
1,5
1
familiarity
liking
modern western
familiarity
liking
vs. non-western styles
males
females
No gender difference for positive correlation „familiarity & liking“ in
both styles (p < 0.001).
Familiarity vs. liking and gender
11 modern western styles
I don't like it
No differences for
movement (N =12 vs. 10), haste (N = 10 vs. 17), calm (N = 20 vs. 25),
boredom (N = 33 vs. 22), joy (N = 23 vs. 26), aggression (N = 14 vs. 15)
3
sadness
N = 14 vs. 8
fam.: p<0.1, ♀
anger
N = 10 vs. 5
fam.: p<0.1, ♂
suffering
N = 13 vs. 6
fam.: p<0.1, ♂
fear*
N = 61 vs. 71
fam.: p<0.05, ♂
curiosity
N = 9 vs. 9
fam.: p<0.1, ♂
I like it
2
males
females
intensity*
N = 29 vs. 19
fam.: p=0.052, ♂
lik.: p<0.05, ♂
chaos
N = 22 vs. 31
fam.: p<0.1, ♀
1
1
2
familiar
3
foreign
Familiarity vs. liking and gender
6 non-western styles
No significant differences for
fear (N=12 vs. 8), spirituality (12 vs. 8), boredom and calm
I don't like it
3
boredom
N = 21 vs. 12
fam.: p = 0.13, ♂
males
females
joy*
N = 30 vs. 39
fam.: p<0.05, ♀
2
intensity*
N = 16 vs. 8
I like it
lik.: p <0.05, ♂
calm
N = 22 vs. 21
lik.: p=0.14, ♂
1
1
familiar
2
foreign
3
Number of emotion and association words
and gender
All differences highly significant (p < 0.001)
mean number of words
2,5
2
1,5
1
males
0,5
females
0
emotions associations emotions associations
modern
modern non-western non-western
western
western
styles
styles
styles
styles
Conclusions (1)
Main results
• high correlation between familiarity and liking,
independent of style and gender
• indications of specific musical emotions (biased towards
unfamiliar music): movement, chaos, madness…
• foreignness and dislike are associated with fear, madness,
anger, chaos, aggression
• familiarity and liking are associated with movement, joy,
calm, love, fun, curiosity
Conclusions (2)
Dependency on style
• modern western styles are less familiar and liked
• most frequent emotions in modern western music:
fear, boredom, chaos, joy
• most frequent emotions in non-western music:
joy, calm, boredom, movement
• emotion categories:
– majority of categories: similar familiarity & liking ratings for both styles
– indications of some exceptions
Reasons for differences in ratings? specific stylistic features,
liking & cognitive responses, methodological problem…
Conclusions (3)
Dependency on gender
• modern western styles:
less familiar and liked by females
• non-western styles:
no difference in familiarity, but more disliked by females
• difference in emotional response:
higher number of emotion/association words given by females
• emotion categories of both styles:
(un-) significant differences in several familiarity and liking
ratings (indication of musical preferences?)
Conclusions (4)
• Are these results culture-specific?
– Austria? („Austrian musical emotion lexicon“?)
– Europe?
– the West?
• Are these results music-specific?
– foreign art
– foreign culture
– foreign people & societies