Exploring a rationale for choosing to listen to sad music when feeling sad

By A. V. D. van den Tol, J. Edwards. 2013

166 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Choosing to listen to self-identified sad music after experiencing negative psychological circumstances seems paradoxical given the commonly-held view that people are motivated to seek a positive affective state when distressed. We examined the motivations people described to listen to music they identified as sad, particularly when experiencing negative circumstances, and the self-reported effects of this activity. We asked adults to respond to an online survey and analyzed their narrative reports using a modified grounded theory approach. Responses were received from 65 adults across five countries. The process that underlies choosing to listen to sad music as well as the self-regulatory strategies and functions of sad music were identified. The music-selection strategies included: connection; selecting music based on memory triggers; high aesthetic value; and message communicated. The functions of these strategies were in the domains of (re-)experiencing affect, cognitive, social, retrieving memories, friend, distraction, and mood enhancement. We additionally modelled the underlying psychological process that guides sad music listening behaviour and the effects of listening. These findings present core insights into the dynamics and value of choosing to listen to self-identified sad music when coping with negative psychological circumstances.

Subfields: Cognitive Neuroscience, Music, Social Psychology

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/c2a99af90f53624063b139db234a575d75b6c7a2

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In Cognitive Neuroscience

In Music

In Social Psychology

Citations in the corpus

Adaptive and maladaptive attraction to negative emotions in music (2013, background): “However, studies on the use of sad music for mood regulation tend to omit consideration of maladaptive motivations for listening to sad music listening (see for e.g. Van den Tol & Edwards, 2011; Vuoskoski et al., 2012).”
Listening to sad music in adverse situations: How music selection strategies relate to self-regulatory goals, listening effects, and mood enhancement (2015, background): “More specifically, listening to sad music when feeling sad will intensify feelings of sadness for most people (Van den Tol, 2011, 2012; Van den Tol & Edwards, 2011, 2012, 2013).”
Emotional outcomes of regulation strategies used during personal music listening: A mobile experience sampling study (2014, background): “In this context, it is of interest that while ruminating on sad music is typically maladaptive (e.g., Garrido & Schubert, 2013), sad music can also be used adaptively (e.g., by releasing negative emotions; Van den Tol & Edwards, 2011), so greater clarification of the term “focus” may be required.”