“Motivation” and “lust”. For comparison, they also gave participants prompts that described a conversational interaction in which someone expressed their feelings. (Example: “An acquaintance is talking to you about their week and expressing feelings of sadness.”) In sum, the emotions that subjects felt were deeply connected to “what music” is also what makes people feel more. Connected to each other in conversation: love, joy, loneliness, sadness, ecstasy, tranquility, grief.
Mario Atty-Picker, a philosopher at Loyola University Chicago who led the study, finds the results interesting. After considering the data, he proposed a relatively simple idea: Maybe we listen to music not for an emotional response — many subjects reported that sad music, although artistic, was not particularly enjoyable — but for a sense of connection with others. Applied to the paradox of melancholy music: our love of music is not a direct perception of sadness, but a perception of connection. Dr. Nobe and Dr. Venkatesan were quickly on board.
