Are you one of those people who like listening to sad music? Chances are, you're not alone. A new study, published in the scientific journal PLOS One discovered that the negative emotions felt when listening to sad music can actually do us good — which is why, generally, this type of music is many people's favorite.
“It's paradoxical to think that you could enjoy something that makes you feel a negative emotion,” says Professor Emery Schubert, author of the study from the School of Arts and Media's Empirical Musicology Laboratory, UNSW Arts, Design & Architecturein press release. “But this research shows the first empirical evidence that sadness can positively affect enjoyment of music, directly.”
To reach this conclusion, the study It had 50 participants, consisting mainly of undergraduate music students. They were told to choose a sad song they liked. The choices ranged from classics by Beethoven to current hits by Taylor Swift.
Participants were then asked to imagine whether their sadness could be “removed” by listening to the song. Most of them answered yes. “We know that many people are quite skilled when it comes to thought experiments, so it is a reasonable approach to use and, in the worst case, should not produce results,” explains Schubert.
After “removing the sadness”, the researchers asked whether the participants started to like the chosen music in a different way. 82% of them said that “removing” sadness reduced enjoyment of music .
“The findings suggest that the sadness felt when listening to music can actually be enjoyed and can increase the pleasure of listening to it,” says Schubert.
Sadness and “being moved”
Previous research has shown that sadness is not appreciated when listening to music, but it is mediated by a complex feeling with positive aspects that involve “being moved” . “Previous studies refer to an 'indirect effect hypothesis,' meaning that people may feel sad, but it's something else they enjoy – being moved,” says Schubert.
To discuss the findings of these previous studies, 53 participants in another group were instructed to choose songs they liked and found “moving.” These people reported that they felt sadness, in addition to being emotional.
“Previously, it was thought that when people felt sadness in response to music they liked, they were actually becoming emotional,” says Professor Schubert. “But the findings of this study suggest that being emotional and feeling sad have overlapping meanings,” he adds. In other words, being moved causes sadness, and sadness leads to emotion, according to the researcher.
The study has some limitations, such as the fact that it allowed participants to choose the songs that move them on their own.
“It is always risky to ask a participant to choose a song that they both love and that makes them sad, as this may give them a clue about the purpose of the study,” explains Schubert. “But we took steps to minimize this in our method, including not mentioning study concerns during recruitment, examining self-selected parts, and having a control condition.”
Therefore, more studies are needed to confirm the findings of the research and previous studies.
Source: CNN Brasil
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