What is it about?
Some features of music are typically manipulated by composers to convey affect. We used music excerpts in which some of these features were systematically varied to produce different emotional characteristics. When participants moved together with the researcher to the music, the perceived 'likeability' of the synchronised partner changed in function of the affect conveyed by the music excerpts. This influence was determined by a significantly stronger effect of the music characteristics in female participants.
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Why is it important?
Our findings show that, differently from what described in previous studies, music affects person perception not only by affording a beat to synchronise with and to be used for interpersonal coordination, but also by providing different emotional cues.
Perspectives
A regular, external beat is considered one of the most important characteristics of music, and one that uniquely identifies music within the human communication system. We hope that this study will generate interest in studying how other musical features (namely, those associated with the communication of affect) can add layers to person perception and influence interpersonal behaviour in ecologically valid contexts.
Fabia Franco
Middlesex University
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Emotion-related musical variables affect person perception, Interaction Studies Social Behaviour and Communication in Biological and Artificial Systems, December 2016, John Benjamins,
DOI: 10.1075/is.17.2.06fra.
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