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Universality, domain-specificity and development of psychological responses to music

Nature Reviews Psychology volume 2, pages 333–346 (2023)Cite this article

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Abstract

Humans can find music happy, sad, fearful or spiritual. They can be soothed by it or urged to dance. Whether these psychological responses reflect cognitive adaptations that evolved expressly for responding to music is an ongoing topic of study. In this Review, we examine three features of music-related psychological responses that help to elucidate whether the underlying cognitive systems are specialized adaptations: universality, domain-specificity and early expression. Focusing on emotional and behavioural responses, we find evidence that the relevant psychological mechanisms are universal and arise early in development. However, the existing evidence cannot establish that these mechanisms are domain-specific. To the contrary, many findings suggest that universal psychological responses to music reflect more general properties of emotion, auditory perception and other human cognitive capacities that evolved for non-musical purposes. Cultural evolution, driven by the tinkering of musical performers, evidently crafts music to compellingly appeal to shared psychological mechanisms, resulting in both universal patterns (such as form–function associations) and culturally idiosyncratic styles.

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Fig. 1: Musical response and music perception comprise distinct psychological processes, both of which are at work in human musicality.
Fig. 2: Emotional communication in music.
Fig. 3: Ontogeny of emotional and behavioural responses.
Fig. 4: Evidence of universal form–function inferences in song.

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Article 29 March 2022

Peter Vuust, Ole A. Heggli, … Morten L. Kringelbach

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank Alex Mackiel for assistance with the preparation of Fig. 3, and members of The Music Lab for feedback on the manuscript. M.S. acknowledges IAST funding from the French National Research Agency (ANR) under grant ANR-17-EURE-0010 (Investissements d’Avenir programme). S.A.M. acknowledges funding from the US NIH Director’s Early Independence Award DP5OD024566 and the Royal Society of New Zealand Te Apārangi Rutherford Discovery Fellowship RDF-UOA2103.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute for Advanced Study in Toulouse, University of Toulouse 1 Capitole, Toulouse, France

    Manvir Singh

  2. Yale Child Study Center, Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA

    Samuel A. Mehr

  3. School of Psychology, University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand

    Samuel A. Mehr

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The authors contributed equally to all aspects of the article.

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We dedicate this article to Sandra Trehub (1938–2023), whose pioneering and inspiring work touched every corner of the psychology of music.

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Glossary

Auditory scene analysis

The auditory system process involved in gathering information about which sounding objects are present in the environment and determining where they are located.

Harmonic structure

The grouping of harmonies in a musical example, where harmonies are combinations of tones (such as chords) that are functionally related to one another; when listeners hear a melody, they automatically build representations of its potential harmonic structure.

Integer ratios

In music, the organization of pitch or duration information in a melody or rhythm via a simple ratio of integers, such as a duration pattern of 2:1, where the first musical event is twice as long as the second.

Isochronous beat

Periodic rhythm in which beats have the same duration; most music is structured around the isochronous beat, and it is typically perceived as the basic rhythmic foundation of the music (for example, when one taps one’s foot to music, one typically taps to the isochronous beat).

Major mode

In western classical and popular music, a collection of notes (which can be played at the same time, as in a chord, or not, as in a melody) the third note of which is four semitones from the tonal centre.

Minor mode

In western classical and popular music, a collection of notes (which can be played at the same time, as in a chord, or not, as in a melody) the third note of which is three semitones from the tonal centre.

Timbre

Perceived quality of a sound that makes notes produced by different sources, such as the human voice and a piano, sound different from each other, even when produced at the same pitch, duration and intensity.

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Singh, M., Mehr, S.A. Universality, domain-specificity and development of psychological responses to music. Nat Rev Psychol 2, 333–346 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s44159-023-00182-z

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