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Being Moved by Unfamiliar Sad Music Is Associated with High Empathy

Overview of attention for article published in Frontiers in Psychology, September 2016
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About this Attention Score

  • In the top 5% of all research outputs scored by Altmetric
  • High Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age (99th percentile)
  • High Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age and source (99th percentile)

Mentioned by

news
52 news outlets
blogs
5 blogs
twitter
69 X users
facebook
5 Facebook pages
video
1 YouTube creator

Citations

dimensions_citation
96 Dimensions

Readers on

mendeley
214 Mendeley
Title
Being Moved by Unfamiliar Sad Music Is Associated with High Empathy
Published in
Frontiers in Psychology, September 2016
DOI 10.3389/fpsyg.2016.01176
Pubmed ID
Authors

Tuomas Eerola, Jonna K. Vuoskoski, Hannu Kautiainen

Abstract

The paradox of enjoying listening to music that evokes sadness is yet to be fully understood. Unlike prior studies that have explored potential explanations related to lyrics, memories, and mood regulation, we investigated the types of emotions induced by unfamiliar, instrumental sad music, and whether these responses are consistently associated with certain individual difference variables. One hundred and two participants were drawn from a representative sample to minimize self-selection bias. The results suggest that the emotional responses induced by unfamiliar sad music could be characterized in terms of three underlying factors: Relaxing sadness, Moving sadness, and Nervous sadness. Relaxing sadness was characterized by felt and perceived peacefulness and positive valence. Moving sadness captured an intense experience that involved feelings of sadness and being moved. Nervous sadness was associated with felt anxiety, perceived scariness and negative valence. These interpretations were supported by indirect measures of felt emotion. Experiences of Moving sadness were strongly associated with high trait empathy and emotional contagion, but not with other previously suggested traits such as absorption or nostalgia-proneness. Relaxing sadness and Nervous sadness were not significantly predicted by any of the individual difference variables. The findings are interpreted within a theoretical framework of embodied emotions.

X Demographics

X Demographics

The data shown below were collected from the profiles of 69 X users who shared this research output. Click here to find out more about how the information was compiled.
Mendeley readers

Mendeley readers

The data shown below were compiled from readership statistics for 214 Mendeley readers of this research output. Click here to see the associated Mendeley record.

Geographical breakdown

Country Count As %
United Kingdom 1 <1%
Philippines 1 <1%
Germany 1 <1%
Unknown 211 99%

Demographic breakdown

Readers by professional status Count As %
Student > Bachelor 35 16%
Student > Master 29 14%
Researcher 27 13%
Student > Ph. D. Student 26 12%
Student > Doctoral Student 11 5%
Other 34 16%
Unknown 52 24%
Readers by discipline Count As %
Psychology 82 38%
Arts and Humanities 26 12%
Neuroscience 14 7%
Social Sciences 7 3%
Engineering 6 3%
Other 22 10%
Unknown 57 27%
Attention Score in Context

Attention Score in Context

This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 484. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 20 May 2023.
All research outputs
#54,967
of 25,480,126 outputs
Outputs from Frontiers in Psychology
#96
of 34,550 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#1,131
of 329,841 outputs
Outputs of similar age from Frontiers in Psychology
#2
of 425 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 25,480,126 research outputs across all sources so far. Compared to these this one has done particularly well and is in the 99th percentile: it's in the top 5% of all research outputs ever tracked by Altmetric.
So far Altmetric has tracked 34,550 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a lot more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 13.3. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 99% of its peers.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 329,841 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 99% of its contemporaries.
We're also able to compare this research output to 425 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 99% of its contemporaries.