Effects of Mood State upon Musical Perceptions April 17th, 2015 IUSB Undergraduate Research Conference Geoffrey D. Trowbridge & Dr. Igor Juricevic

Music and Human Emotion “Music produces a kind of pleasure that human nature cannot do without.” – Confucius, 5th century B.C.E. “Music has charms to sooth the savage breast.” – William Congreve, The Mourning Bride (1697) 20th century: Music Therapy Does the appeal of sad-sounding music increase for listeners in a negative mood state? How does the typical bias for happy-sounding music interact with contextual factors?

“Happy” vs. “Sad” Music Perceived affect derived from a combination of mode and tempo. (Dalla Bella et. al., 2001) Mode: indicates whether the key of a piece is major (happy) or minor (sad). Tempo: indicates the pace of music measured in beats per minute: Fast (happy) or slow (sad). Theories: Tempo affects arousal (Husain et. al., 2002) while mode supports mood congruency (Shellenberg et. al., 2008).

Mood Priming Randomly assigned to read a “happy” or a “sad” story Dr. Ralph Erber (1991) Experiences of a young female art student Positive mood: Describes a sequence of fortunate events, culminating in the receipt of a scholarship. Negative mood: Describes losing her ability to create art due to a rare debilitating case of arthritis.

Music Selections 28 musical excerpts, each approx. 30 seconds One-fourth (7) provided consistently positive affective cues (fast tempo/major mode) One-fourth (7) provided consistently negative affective cues (slow tempo/minor mode) Remainder provided mixed affective cues (7 fast/minor, 7 slow/major)

Music Selections Selected artists: J.S. Bach Enya W. Amadeus Mozart Great Big Sea Frederic Chopin Massive Attack James Horner Yes Yann Tiersen The Cure Dmitri Shostakovich Queen Radiohead King’s X

Qualtrics Survey

Participants n = 69 IUSB undergraduate Psychology students (36 women, 3 men) Social media respondents (18 women, 12 men) Mean age = 33.6, median age = 25 (range 18-67, SD = 15.92) Happy group: n = 36, M = 6.06, SD = 0.92 Sad group: n = 33, M = 2.39, SD = 1.14 Mood priming: t(67) = 14.68, p < .001

Primed mood * tempo * mode: F(1, 67) = 4.15, p = .046

Primed mood * tempo * mode: F(1, 67) = 4.15, p = .046

Primed mood * mode: F(1, 67) = 5.09, p = .027

Primed mood * mode: F(1, 67) = 5.09, p = .027

Fast/Major music paired with any other: t > 4, p < .05

Findings Overall, tempo has a more significant effect upon mood perception and emotional response than does mode. However, among listeners in a sad mood state, music in a minor mode produces a more positive affective response than it does for those in a happy mood state. Listeners show a selective preference for up-tempo, major-mode music, regardless of mood state.