Universal recognition of three basic emotions in music
Current Biology, 19 (7):
573--6 (2009)DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2009.02.058
Аннотация
It has long been debated which aspects of music perception are universal
and which are developed only after exposure to a specific musical
culture. Here, we report a crosscultural study with participants
from a native African population (Mafa) and Western participants,
with both groups being naive to the music of the other respective
culture. Experiment 1 investigated the ability to recognize three
basic emotions (happy, sad, scared/fearful) expressed in Western
music. Results show that the Mafas recognized happy, sad, and scared/fearful
Western music excerpts above chance, indicating that the expression
of these basic emotions in Western music can be recognized universally.
Experiment 2 examined how a spectral manipulation of original, naturalistic
music affects the perceived pleasantness of music in Western as well
as in Mafa listeners. The spectral manipulation modified, among other
factors, the sensory dissonance of the music. The data show that
both groups preferred original Western music and also original Mafa
music over their spectrally manipulated versions. It is likely that
the sensory dissonance produced by the spectral manipulation was
at least partly responsible for this effect, suggesting that consonance
and permanent sensory dissonance universally influence the perceived
pleasantness of music.