Name:Marie-Andrée, Richard

School/Affiliation:Université de Montréal, Psychology Department

Co-Authors:Marie-Andrée Richard, Will Azzi, Juliette Fortier, Nicholas E.V. Foster, Nathalie Gosselin, Simone Dalla Bella

Virtual or In-person:In-person

Abstract:

Music can evoke pleasure and a feeling of wanting to move (WTM, sometimes labeled “groove”). The latter is linked to factors such as arousal, familiarity and acoustic parameters. Despite the growing literature on the relation between pleasure and WTM, it is unclear if this relation is influenced by movement type (e.g., tapping, walking, dancing). To test whether the movement type alters this relation, 480 participants rated 264 songs in terms of pleasure, arousal (relaxing-stimulating), familiarity, and WTM (low-high), which was assessed for different motor activities: moving in general, tapping/head nodding, walking, running and dancing.

Pleasure and WTM decreased as a function of the intensity of movement. Pleasure and WTM were positively correlated, and moderated by movement type. This correlation was the strongest for tapping (with a curve comparable to “moving in general”) and the weakest for running. Arousal, familiarity, and acoustic features such as pulse clarity and roughness were positively linked to WTM; only familiarity and roughness were respectively positively and negatively linked to pleasure. Notably, these variables acted as moderators: the pleasure-WTM relation was stronger with stimulating and familiar music with a high level of pulse clarity and roughness.

In sum, the magnitude of the pleasure-WTM relation was altered by movement type. As a similar relationship was found with tapping and movement in general, this suggests that tapping may be a good behavioral model to study WTM. Moreover, because the pleasure-WTM relation varies by movement type, this aspect should be taken into account in future research.