The Role of Enculturation in Music-Induced Emotions : A Study on Psychophysiological Responses during Music Listening

Previous cross-cultural studies in music and emotion have mostly focused on emotion recognition and whether basic perceived emotions are recognised across cultures. As a result, the impact of enculturation on music-induced emotions remains largely unexplored. In addition, such studies have relied mainly on subjective self-reports, ignoring other components of emotion such as physiology. Cross-cultural studies have suggested that cultural learning has a differential effect on certain emotional components (subjective feeling, physiology, and facial expression), yet this has not been tested in a music setting. To test this hypothesis, three groups of Finnish, Chinese, and Greek non-musicians listened to 20 excerpts of Western, Chinese, and Greek music that were selected from previous studies in which the emotional character of the music had been rated. Self-reports were used to collect continuous ratings of valence and arousal, along with measures of physiological activity (heart rate, skin conductance, and respiratory rate). Ratings of intensity, familiarity with the excerpt and familiarity with the music style were also collected after each stimulus. Results showed similar levels of familiarity with Western music across nationalities. However, the subjective measurements revealed group differences in the subjective feeling, even when familiarity was controlled for. Arousal was the only subjective rating that did not have a differentiating pattern, in line with previous research that has suggested arousal has a more universal quality. Physiological activity also showed less variation across nationalities, indicating that autonomic nervous system responses to music listening are less mediated by enculturation.