What music gets your feet pounding? A Finnish study found that people from different cultures report the same physical sensations when listening to the same songs.
advertisementYou know that moment when you hear a really good song and you get goosebumps? Or is it when you can’t stop tapping your foot to the killer beat? What about the music-induced head bob and shoulder shimmy?
Movement and emotion are closely tied to music, and music is closely tied to humans. But if music is the “universal language of humanity,” does that mean we all respond in the same way?
a new research Opinions from Finland suggest that despite cultural differences, our bodies and minds respond similarly to music that is considered happy, sad, gentle, scary, aggressive, or groovy. Masu.
“People seem to ‘feel’ music the same way, even in far-flung places around the world,” Finnish researcher Vesa Putkinen told Euronews Culture. “So there’s something universal about how music activates our bodies.”
Putkinen and his team at Finland’s Turku PET Center compared East Asian and Western participants for their study, choosing two cultures that are geographically opposite and have different musical traditions.
In collaboration with Chinese researchers, they surveyed around 2,000 people in the UK, US and China to find out how they felt while listening to music.
Toe tapping and head tapping
Participants listened to the same music clip and were then asked to color a picture of a human body to indicate which parts of the body they felt changed as the song played.
Putkinen said “change” was intentionally left vague so participants could easily self-report their feelings. He didn’t have to physically tap his toes to the music, but if he felt the urge, it was important.
(If you would like to try it out, please participate in the web survey) here. )
As a result, researchers created what they call a “body sensation map” (BSM), which shows how people’s physical sensations change when they listen to the same song.
What struck me most? Despite coming from different cultures on opposite sides of the world, most participants from East and West responded in the same way.
“This is even more surprising because there was no age limit and no socio-economic factors were taken into account,” Putkinen said. “Thus, despite the diversity of individual differences across a variety of factors, we found that our respondents had very consistent emotional and physical sensations. It’s very rare to get results this clean. .”
Check out the video animation that shows how BSM changed over the course of various songs.
‘shake it off‘ by Taylor SwiftFor this song, classified as a “happy song,” all participants felt changes in their toes and heads, and perhaps thought about tapping their toes or shaking their heads.
Western participants also seemed to feel less chest sensations than Eastern participants, and instead felt more changes in their hands.
Metal band Slayer’s “Angel of Death,” classified as “aggressive,” focuses the emotions of both Western and Eastern participants on their heads, lending authenticity to headbangers around the world. In the East, sensations were also felt in the feet and hands.
Some differences emerged. Western participants felt a stronger sense of “gut feeling” when listening to scary songs than did Eastern participants. The gentle and sad songs seemed to resonate more with Westerners than with Easterners.
The relationship between music and human emotions and movements
Research shows that humans universally nod or tap their feet to music, an almost reflexive response that begins to appear even in early childhood.
advertisementAdditionally, even if a person is not physically moving, exposure to music activates the sensorimotor areas of the brain, meaning the brain is contemplating movement.
However, the emotions evoked by music seem to function differently (sometimes paradoxically) than emotions in other real-life situations.
“Evolutionary psychology believes that emotions evolved because they help us cope with real-life challenges,” Putkinen said.
He cited fear as a common example, saying this emotion helps us know when to run away from a potential threat.
“But the music itself is a little different, because it does not have obvious real-life consequences,” Putkinen continued. “This raises the question of whether music relies on the same brain mechanisms as other emotions, or whether it relies on bodily mechanisms.”
advertisementSome study participants were asked to describe their emotions while listening to the song. Sad and gentle songs were rated as very relaxing but low in energy. This may explain why listening to sad songs paradoxically makes you feel better.
“Sadness in music is interesting because it’s a little different from sadness in real life,” Putkinen said. “We feel sad, but just as we try to avoid actually being miserable in everyday life, we can’t avoid the sadness caused by music. So even in the context of music and art, we can’t avoid it. , these nominally negative emotions are perceived as positive.”
Neuroscientist Putkinen has expanded his research to see what is actually happening to people’s brain activity while listening to different genres of music, showing that the emotions evoked by music are linked in the brain. He said he wants to start understanding how it works.
The Turku PET Center is working on a new study that analyzes brain scans of people who lie still while listening to music. New research studies links Between music and human emotions.