Music, Empathy, and Affiliation: Commentary on Greenberg, Rentfrow, and Baron-Cohen

Empathy and social cognition arguably play a crucial role in our engagement with music. In response to the account offered by Greenberg, Rentfrow, and Baron-Cohen, this commentary considers an alternative—yet complementary—explanation for how music making and music listening might be able to evoke empathy and affiliation. This alternative explanation stems from the perception–action model of empathy, and the affiliation-evoking effects of mimicking and synchronized actions. In light of this alternative account, I will also explore the potential contribution of dispositional empathy to music preferences and music perception as suggested by Greenberg and colleagues

The Influence of the Moving Image on Music-Induced Emotions

The combination of music and the moving image is prevalent in our society, occurring in visual art forms and media such as movies, music videos, and commercials. The relationship between the two has received much interest in existing research, but the focus has mainly been on the influence that music may have on the experience of the moving image. The present study adopts the reverse approach, and examines the potential impact the moving image may have on emotions felt and perceived while listening to music. Sixty-six participants were presented with three music excerpts that were introduced either alone or paired with one of two videos aimed to elicit strong emotions (either awe or being moved). The music excerpts were played a second time (without visual accompaniment) to investigate whether a possible influence of previously presented visual information was persistent. The results revealed that the moving image did have an intensifying effect on emotions induced (both awe and being moved) while listening to music. A significant negative effect on perceived valence and enjoyment was found for the least congruent music & video pairing. Interestingly, this incongruent pairing had the most persistent influence, being the only significant carry-over effect during the second presentation of music alone

Corona Concerts: The Effect of Virtual Concert Characteristics on Social Connection and Kama Muta

The popularity of virtual concerts increased as a result of the social distancing requirements of the coronavirus pandemic. We aimed to examine how the characteristics of virtual concerts and the characteristics of the participants influenced their experiences of social connection and kama muta (often labeled “being moved”). We hypothesized that concert liveness and the salience of the coronavirus would influence social connection and kama muta. We collected survey responses on a variety of concert and personal characteristics from 307 participants from 13 countries across 4 continents. We operationalized social connection as a combination of feelings and behaviors and kama muta was measured using the short kama muta scale (Zickfeld et al., 2019). We found that (1) social connection and kama muta were related and predicted by empathic concern, (2) live concerts produced more social connection, but not kama muta, than pre-recorded concerts, and (3) the salience of the coronavirus during concerts predicted kama muta and this effect was completely mediated by social connection. Exploratory analyses also examined the influence of social and physical presence, motivations for concert attendance, and predictors of donations. This research contributes to the understanding of how people can connect socially and emotionally in virtual environments

The Influence of the Moving Image on Music-Induced Emotions

The combination of music and the moving image is prevalent in our society, occurring in visual art forms and media such as movies, music videos, and commercials. The relationship between the two has received much interest in existing research, but the focus has mainly been on the influence that music may have on the experience of the moving image. The present study adopts the reverse approach, and examines the potential impact the moving image may have on emotions felt and perceived while listening to music. Sixty-six participants were presented with three music excerpts that were introduced either alone or paired with one of two videos aimed to elicit strong emotions (either awe or being moved). The music excerpts were played a second time (without visual accompaniment) to investigate whether a possible influence of previously presented visual information was persistent. The results revealed that the moving image did have an intensifying effect on emotions induced (both awe and being moved) while listening to music. A significant negative effect on perceived valence and enjoyment was found for the least congruent music & video pairing. Interestingly, this incongruent pairing had the most persistent influence, being the only significant carry-over effect during the second presentation of music alone

"Help! I Need Somebody": Music as a Global Resource for Obtaining Wellbeing Goals in Times of Crisis.

Music can reduce stress and anxiety, enhance positive mood, and facilitate social bonding. However, little is known about the role of music and related personal or cultural (individualistic vs. collectivistic) variables in maintaining wellbeing during times of stress and social isolation as imposed by the COVID-19 crisis. In an online questionnaire, administered in 11 countries (Argentina, Brazil, China, Colombia, Italy, Mexico, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, the UK, and USA, N = 5,619), participants rated the relevance of wellbeing goals during the pandemic, and the effectiveness of different activities in obtaining these goals. Music was found to be the most effective activity for three out of five wellbeing goals: enjoyment, venting negative emotions, and self-connection. For diversion, music was equally good as entertainment, while it was second best to create a sense of togetherness, after socialization. This result was evident across different countries and gender, with minor effects of age on specific goals, and a clear effect of the importance of music in people's lives. Cultural effects were generally small and surfaced mainly in the use of music to obtain a sense of togetherness. Interestingly, culture moderated the use of negatively valenced and nostalgic music for those higher in distress

"Help! I Need Somebody": Music as a Global Resource for Obtaining Wellbeing Goals in Times of Crisis

Music can reduce stress and anxiety, enhance positive mood, and facilitate social bonding. However, little is known about the role of music and related personal or cultural (individualistic vs. collectivistic) variables in maintaining wellbeing during times of stress and social isolation as imposed by the COVID-19 crisis. In an online questionnaire, administered in 11 countries (Argentina, Brazil, China, Colombia, Italy, Mexico, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, the UK, and USA, N = 5,619), participants rated the relevance of wellbeing goals during the pandemic, and the effectiveness of different activities in obtaining these goals. Music was found to be the most effective activity for three out of five wellbeing goals: enjoyment, venting negative emotions, and self-connection. For diversion, music was equally good as entertainment, while it was second best to create a sense of togetherness, after socialization. This result was evident across different countries and gender, with minor effects of age on specific goals, and a clear effect of the importance of music in people's lives. Cultural effects were generally small and surfaced mainly in the use of music to obtain a sense of togetherness. Interestingly, culture moderated the use of negatively valenced and nostalgic music for those higher in distress.Laboratorio para el Estudio de la Experiencia Musica

Tears evoke the intention to offer social support: A systematic investigation of the interpersonal effects of emotional crying across 41 countries

Tearful crying is a ubiquitous and likely uniquely human phenomenon. Scholars have argued that emotional tears serve an attachment function: Tears are thought to act as a social glue by evoking social support intentions. Initial experimental studies supported this proposition across several methodologies, but these were conducted almost exclusively on participants from North America and Europe, resulting in limited generalizability. This project examined the tears-social support intentions effect and possible mediating and moderating variables in a fully pre-registered study across 7007 participants (24,886 ratings) and 41 countries spanning all populated continents. Participants were presented with four pictures out of 100 possible targets with or without digitally-added tears. We confirmed the main prediction that seeing a tearful individual elicits the intention to support, d = 0.49 [0.43, 0.55]. Our data suggest that this effect could be mediated by perceiving the crying target as warmer and more helpless, feeling more connected, as well as feeling more empathic concern for the crier, but not by an increase in personal distress of the observer. The effect was moderated by the situational valence, identifying the target as part of one's group, and trait empathic concern. A neutral situation, high trait empathic concern, and low identification increased the effect. We observed high heterogeneity across countries that was, via split-half validation, best explained by country-level GDP per capita and subjective well-being with stronger effects for higher-scoring countries. These findings suggest that tears can function as social glue, providing one possible explanation why emotional crying persists into adulthood.</p

What Makes an Instrument Sound Sad? Commentary on Huron, Anderson, and Shanahan

Huron, Anderson, and Shanahan investigated the hypothesis that instruments that are deemed most capable of expressing sadness would also be judged better able to generate acoustic features similar to those used to convey sadness in speech. The judgments of these acoustic features accounted for approximately half (51.3%) of the variance in the judgments of sadness capacity. I argue that the relatively low explanation rate may be partly explained by choices made in the operationalization of the acoustic features, the overlap and relatedness of three of the acoustic features used (mumbling, dark timbre, and lowest pitch), as well as the practical omission of such a significant feature as legato articulation. Furthermore, the method used by Huron and colleagues may have inflated the effect of cultural conceptions on the judgments of sadness capacity. I also argue that low energy – albeit a fundamental feature of sadness as an emotion – is not the meaningful factor underlying the set of acoustic features most correlated with sadness capacity. Instead, I suggest that the only acoustic variable significantly predicting evaluations of sadness capacity – pitch-bending – best reflected an instrument’s capability to manipulate timbre, pitch, loudness and articulation in ways that match and exaggerate the features of sad vocal expression