Can Music Change Mood? An Experimental Affect Priming Study (2021)

Provost’s Award for Excellence in Student Research

Music is a fundamental component of human cultures (Trehub et al., 2015). Primary motivations for listening and creating music have been found to be related to emotions, including emotional expression, regulation and induction (e.g., Laiho, 2004). To date, however, the study of the complex relationship between music and emotion has not been central to music psychology. The current study builds on the sparse corpus of existing literature by using an experimental affect–priming design to induce a target affective state (e.g., “sad”) and to examine how participants’ subsequent music choice (“sad” or “happy” music) impacted their outcome affect. Questions of specific interest included participants’ music choice (e.g., affectively congruent: sad induction – sad choice vs. affectively incongruent: sad induction – happy choice). The current study also examines whether personality factors of trait neuroticism and empathy influenced this process.