Emotional Reactions to Sounds without Meaning

Abstract

The present research examined the relationship between emotional reactions to sounds without meaning (tone and noise complexes) and objective sound descriptors. Two experiments showed that the core affect dimensions valence and activation were related to perceived loudness (intensity) and sharpness (perceived high frequency content), respectively. These results can be used as design criteria for emotion induction with sounds, implementation of emotional sounds in products, as well as in research on environmental noise perception.

Keywords

Emotion; Sound

Share and Cite:

Västfjäll, D. (2012). Emotional Reactions to Sounds without Meaning. Psychology, 3, 606-609. doi: 10.4236/psych.2012.38091.

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

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