1. Does sad music just press our empathy button?
Richard Parncutt
Centre for Systematic Musicology, University of Graz, Austria
4th International Conference on
Music & Emotion
Geneva, October 2015
SysMus Graz

2. Does sad music just press our empathy button?
What motivates people to engage with sad music? How can music displaying sadness evoke positive emotion (Gabrielsson, 2002)? If attraction to sad music is universal (Balkwill et al., 2004), we expect an evolutionary explanation - not a cognitive-cultural one (such as Aristotle's catharsis, or allowing negative emotions without negative consequences, Kivy, 1990). Listeners are attracted to music that evokes basic emotions (happiness, anger, fear, surprise, tenderness) due in part to evolutionary drives based on individual survival and reproduction; e.g. angry/fearful music presses our danger/attention button. Attraction to sad music may be driven by dispositional empathy (Vuoskoski & Eerola, Escom, 2015), which promotes group survival. Diverse evidence supports the partial innateness of empathetic responses. Altruistic responses to others’ distress (directed altruism) may be as old as mammals and birds (De Waal, 2008); separation distress has a universal neural foundation (Panksepp et al., 1997). Human empathy is automatic and emotional (Singer et al., 2004). Pain is associated with specific facial expressions (A. C. D. C. Williams, 2002), and spontaneous facial mimicry is largely automatic (Sonnby-Borgström, 2002). A role for empathy in music perception is consistent with the dominance of social emotions (“playful joy, sadness, maternal care, sexual lust, territorial/dominance imperatives”) over non-social, self-preservative emotions (“anger and fear”) in the origin of music (Panksepp, 2009). Specifically, sad music may represent a virtual sad person (Watt & Ash, 1998; Parncutt & Kessler, 2006), which activates an automatic proximal mechanism (Preston & De Waal, 2002, abstract). That can explain why sad music is linked to personality traits openness to experience and empathy (Vuoskoski et al., 2012; Vuoskoski & Eerola, 2012); prolactin (Huron, 2011); and even minor keys (Parncutt, 2014). If music originated in mother-infant bonding (Parncutt, 2009), empathy can explain associations between sad music and nostalgia, peacefulness, and wonder (Vuoskoski et al., 2012)..

3. Why do people listen to sad music?
Assumptions
Sad music in most cultures
Widespread motivation to listen to it
Evolutionary explanation?
Paradox
Happiness is the “normal” emotion.
Happiness allows us to cooperate productively.
In our society, we are expected to be happy.
Mood regulation tends to promote happiness.

4. A good theory – in general
Conceptual parsimony
A simple idea that explains a lot
What simple idea can explain our motivation to listen to music expressing all emotions incl. sadness?

5. Idea: Sad music presses our empathy button an automatic signal-response mechanism
Empathy is:
an altruistic response to another’s distress
universal (promotes group survival).
Sad music represents a distressed person
the stimuli are similar
Sad music automatically evokes
an empathetic response.

6. Minor keys and negative valence Parncutt (2014)
Possible explanations:
Dissonance
Alterity
Uncertainty (of root/tonic)
Lower-than-expected pitch
= Signals that a person is sad

7. Evidence that sad music presses our empathy button
Behavior: Personality (Vuoskoski et al., 2012)
“openness to experience”
“empathy”
Physiology: Hormones (Huron, 2011)
prolactin (eating, mating, ovulation, nursing)
oxytocin (intimacy, sex, childbirth, bonding)
Introspection
We like sad music for itself, not its function
Sad music “touches us”

8. Is empathy innate? Psychology Physiology
Human empathy is automatic and emotional (Singer et al., 2004).
Pain is associated with specific facial expressions (A. C. D. C. Williams, 2002); and spontaneous facial mimicry is largely automatic (Sonnby-Borgström, 2002).
Physiology
Directed altruism is as old as mammals and birds (De Waal, 2008)
Separation distress has a universal neural foundation (Panksepp et al., 1997).

9. An Evolutionary-Ecological-Epiphenomenal Approach
Subjective experience
Experience is a mere byproduct of physical processes.
Situation and stimulus
Behavior and physiology
Survival and reproduction
Behavior is about social and environmental interaction,
which is constrained by evolution.

10. Evolutionary-Ecological Approach
Complex conscious cultural emotions
are founded on
spontaneous innate responses.
 First explain spontaneous responses,
their functions, their origins

11. Which basic emotions?
Strong universal emotions expressed e.g. in gossip & news media include
pride, triumph (football)
lust (sex)
Not all basic emotions have universal facial expressions (Ekman)

12. Ecological-evolutionary theory of basic emotions Part 1: Survival
Situ-ation
Default
Individ. threat
Group conflict
Nourishment
I’m strong-er
I’m weak-er
Victory, suc-cess
Loss, failure
Good food, drink
Bad food, poison
Beha-vior
Coope-rate
Fight
Flee
Celeb-rate
Reco-ver
Con-sume
Reject
Emo-tion
Happi-ness, joy, flow
Anger, sur-prise
Fear, sur-prise
Pride, tri-umph
Sad-ness, grief
Gust. plea-sure
Dis-gust
This is incomplete… e.g. could add health and illness
Obvious or “just-so story”?

13. Ecological-evolutionary theory of basic emotions Part 2: Reproduction
Situation
Adult perspective
Child perspective
Mating
Childcare
Dependence
Ignorance
Behavior
Flirting, sex
Satisfy needs
Learn social norms
Acquire skills
Emotion
Romantic love, lust, tenderness
Parental love, tenderness
Filial love, awe, tenderness
Curiosity, playfulnessopenness

14. Why listen to sad music? A general answer
Sad music is a basic emotional display.
All such displays motivate others to
attend
engage
because survival and reproduction are important for everyone.

15. Why listen to sad music? More specific answers
Why respond to displays of specific basic emotions?
Happiness  we want to be happy
Anger  angry people can be dangerous
Fear  perhaps we should also be afraid
Sadness  empathy is an innate response
Or more generally:
+ve valence  join the party
-ve valence  understand the cause

16. Music as a virtual person
Both people and music can be:
Male or female
Good or evil
Happy or sad etc.
(Watt & Ash, 1998)
We respond to music as if it were a person
Music “speaks to us”

17. Music as a virtual mother The mother as perceived by the infant (Parncutt, 2009)
Infant perception of mother:
awe, wonder, fascination, captivation, beauty
“Sublime” musical emotions:
transcendence: magic, enchantment, reverence, divinity

18. How does strong emotion get into music? Parncutt (2009)
3rd trimester: emotional connotations of sound-movement patterns Infancy:  motherese Childhood:  play music Adulthood:  ritual

19. The structure of musical emotion
Prediction: Emotions in music have three components = three virtual people
Two virtual people, interacting now
1st-person perspective
my own felt emotion
2nd-person perspective
the other’s displayed emotion
Virtual mother (in long-term implicit memory)
Infant perspective
transcendence

20. Transcendence in music expressing basic emotions Classical western examples
Happiness
J. S. Bach: Italian Concerto, last movement
Sadness
Chopin: Sonata in Bb minor, funeral march
Tenderness
Mozart: 2nd movements of sonatas
Anger
Beethoven: 5th symphony, 1st movement
Fear
Stravinsky: Rite of Spring

21. From this conference: T. Eerola, H. -R. Peltola & J. K
From this conference: T. Eerola, H.-R. Peltola & J. K. Vuoskoski Structure of emotions in memorable experiences of sad music
2nd person:
Comfort
1st person:
Grief
Virtual mother:
Sublime

22. Sad music presses our empathy button …an automatic signal-response mechanism
Empathy is:
an altruistic response to another’s distress
universal (promotes group survival).
Sad music represents a distressed person
the stimuli are similar
Sad music automatically evokes
an empathetic response.

23. Centre for Systematic Musicology Uni Graz, Austria. Current staff
Annemarie Seither-Preisler
Musical skill transfer
Erica Bisesi
Expression and emotion
Sabrina Sattmann
Pitch perception
Bernd Brabec de Mori
Ethnomusicology
Daniel Reisinger
Student assistant
Lukas Auer
Student assistant