Emotional reactions to music by gender, age, and expertise

Abstract

Fragments of classical music were submitted to 80 subjects, 40 children 9 to 10 years old and 40 adults 19 to 29 years old who were divided into eight groups of ten, to induce feelings of happiness, sadness, anger, and fear. The task required linking each piece of music to one emotion, identifying at the same time the intensity of the emotional response on a scale of 1 to 3. The goal was to study how gender, age, and exposure or expertise related to emotional perceptions of music. Analysis showed (a) experts in music and nonexperts ascribed similar emotions to pieces of music, (b) there was no difference in emotional response to music by gender, although women linked to music stronger emotions of anger than girls, (c) children perceived greater feeling of happiness in music and less feeling of anger than adults, and (d) emotions of anger and fear in music were often confused with one another.