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A study<\/a> suggests that listening to sad music when you\u2019re feeling down doesn\u2019t make you feel worse but actually improves your mood.<\/strong><\/p>\n The study, carried out by scientists Liila Taruffi and Stefan Koelsch from the Free University of Berlin<\/a><\/strong>, asked participants to name the emotions they have experienced when listening to sad music from a given list of feelings, which includes \u2018nostalgia\u2019, \u2018sadness\u2019, \u2018wonder\u2019 and \u2018power\u2019. They were instructed to complete the survey individually and, interestingly, in a quiet environment without listening to any music.<\/p>\n <\/p><\/div> <\/section> The most common feeling described was \u2018nostalgia\u2019, followed by \u2018peacefulness\u2019 and \u2018tenderness\u2019. These feelings belong to the emotional category \u2018sublime\u2019 rather than \u2018unease\u2019, which is the group that \u2018sadness\u2019 is placed in.<\/p>\n The average number of feelings reported was above three, which suggests that the emotional response we have towards music is much more complex than may often be assumed.<\/p>\n The research also indicated that many people feel they gain specific emotional rewards through listening to sad music. These rewards include imagination, emotional regulation and empathy. This could explain why the study found that people are more likely to listen to sad music when already feeling sad.<\/p>\n Taruffi and Koelsch collected the views of 772 people \u2013 408 from Europe, 364 from elsewhere in the world \u2013 through an online survey and published their findings in the peer-reviewed journal PLOS ONE<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n As well as responding to the given music, participants were asked to name the compositions they considered to be sad. Among the most popular responses were Barber<\/a><\/strong>\u2019s Adagio for Strings<\/em>, Mahler<\/a><\/strong>\u2019s Symphony No.5 and Purcell<\/a><\/strong>\u2019s Dido\u2019s Lament<\/em>.<\/p>\n The authors have suggested that their findings could have implications for the use of sad music within musical therapy, specifically that inducing these emotional rewards may play a positive role in a patient\u2019s wellbeing.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Read the full report here<\/a><\/strong>.<\/em><\/p>\n Anna Samson<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n RELATED ARTICLES<\/u><\/p>\n \u2022 Another study proves link between music education and the brain<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n