In the Emotional Roller Coaster: How Music Induces Positive and Negative Pleasurable States

One of the most important motivations to engage in music listening is its emotional effect on us. Listeners often report that they listen to music to calm them down, to stimulate them, to bring them into a positive mood, or to experience emotions like melancholy or nostalgia. Therefore, listening to the sound of music is unique way to experience and engage with different contrasting emotions, helping us to understand and regulate our mood according to many different situations. This makes music an important part of our overall mental wellbeing.

We at the York Music Psychology Group teamed-up with Bang and Olufsen to find out, how music creates emotional responses in us. We conducted a study that shows, how listening to selected music pieces elicits contrasting subjective and physiological responses that are emotionally-varied and at the same time enjoyed by listeners.