Purpose of listening to music affects our emotions

Each respondent named a song that had a personal significance for them and rated how strongly they felt different emotions when listening to it. The participants also described how they typically used music: to reminisce about the past, to form an identity, to regulate their mood, or to distract themselves.

The results revealed a clear pattern. Mixed emotions (both positive, such as love and relaxation, and negative, such as sadness and loneliness) were more likely to occur when music was played to experience its mood, express one’s identity, or evoke memories. However, if the goal was utilitarian, such as relieving stress, shifting attention, or leveling the emotional background, the experiences were less multi-layered.

Mixed emotions were also more common among:

• younger individuals;
• those who tend to have vivid and changeable experiences;
• people who value spontaneity and flexibility;
• those who prioritize independence, goals, and achievements, while also accepting differences in status and success (a factor that researchers associate with cultural orientation).

According to the authors, such people often use music to express themselves, bring back personal memories and fully immerse themselves in the emotions of the work, which creates a richer and more complex emotional response.

The study shows that our connection to music is much more subtle and multifaceted than it seems. Experiences are influenced not only by melody and text, but also by age, personality traits, cultural context, and, most importantly, what role music plays in a person’s life.

In future works, it is planned to analyze in more detail how certain musical characteristics, such as lyrics, key, timbre, and other acoustic features, are associated with the simultaneous occurrence of different emotions (e.g., joy and nostalgia).