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. 2023 Nov 24;13(1):20641.
doi: 10.1038/s41598-023-46963-7.

Effects of disliked music on psychophysiology

Julia Merrill  1   2 , Taren-Ida Ackermann  3 , Anna Czepiel  3
Affiliations

Effects of disliked music on psychophysiology

Julia Merrill et al. Sci Rep. .

Abstract

While previous research has shown the positive effects of music listening in response to one's favorite music, the negative effects of one's most disliked music have not gained much attention. In the current study, participants listened to three self-selected disliked musical pieces which evoked highly unpleasant feelings. As a contrast, three musical pieces were individually selected for each participant based on neutral liking ratings they provided to other participants' disliked music. During music listening, real-time ratings of subjective (dis)pleasure and simultaneous recordings of peripheral measures were obtained. Results showed that compared to neutral music, listening to disliked music evoked physiological reactions reflecting higher arousal (heart rate, skin conductance response, body temperature), disgust (levator labii muscle), anger (corrugator supercilii muscle), distress and grimacing (zygomaticus major muscle). The differences between conditions were most prominent during "very unpleasant" real-time ratings, showing peak responses for the disliked music. Hence, disliked music has a strenuous effect, as shown in strong physiological arousal responses and facial expression, reflecting the listener's attitude toward the music.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no competing interests.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Character traits. Density plots of Trait Anger (green; sum score), personality traits (red; mean rating) and facets of Open-Mindedness (light red), Musical Sophistication (blue; sum score) General and factors. Dashed lines show the mean of the normative groups.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Interaction plot of estimated marginal means (with confidence intervals) based on the fitted models with condition and rating. Significant pairwise comparisons are indicated with asterisks (*** p < 0.001, ** p < 0.01, * p < 0.05).
Figure 3
Figure 3
Interaction plot of estimated marginal means based on the fitted models with condition, rating, and time windows.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Boxplots of behavioral ratings for neutral and disliked music with liking and pleasantness ratings, state anger (sum score; upper row), mood (sum scores; middle row), and latent variables of music-evoked feelings (factor scores; bottom row).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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