Music Affects Your Judgment Of Facial Expressions

A recent research project led by Dr Joydeep Bhattacharya from the University of London showed that by listening to music, the way we judge facial expressions is “enhanced”. Even though you might think that music only deals with hearing, it seems when we listen to music, our perception of emotion is somehow manipulated on a subconscious level.

Volunteers listened to 15 seconds of music, and then gauged the emotions of a face. The research found that listening to happy or sad music made people distinguish more happiness or sadness in a face. Even more eerie: this music-induced effect occurred even when there wasn’t any emotion in the faces of the volunteers they were judging.

“What surprises us,” said Bhattacharya, “is that even as [little] as 15 seconds of music can cause this effect. However more research is needed to find how long the effect lasts or if, and how, other factors such as musical preference, personality, control this effect.”

Movie scores take full advantage of our emotional response to music, but this study goes further by proving that music also influences our interpretation of the outside world. So music not only has the power to make us feel, but it can also persuade. The effect is most apparent in advertising, where a brand only has a few seconds to make an impression. Take, for example, this Coca-cola commercial that aired in Australia, with music by Jack White:

Apparently, the music in the advertisement is tweaking the way you recognize emotion in the actor’s faces. Theoretically, you could make a person’s neutral expression seem much happier by simply listening to happy music beforehand. When you’re in a bad mood, but don’t want to show it, put some upbeat music playing and others probably won’t not notice.

Music moves us emotionally, that much is evident. We can command some of its influential powers by using different types of chords or sounds, but there are other musical effects we simply can’t control. And although music is primarily related to our hearing sense, science shows that it also has the ability to change other senses. In this case, music can alter social interactions on the very basic level of interpreting faces. For better or for worse, music can be used for subliminal messaging that affects both emotion and perception.

We can’t be constantly thinking about how we’re affected by the environment, but the next time you’re organizing music on your iPod, keep in mind that the music you choose has deeper effects than you might imagine.

Do people’s faces seem to change depending on what music you’re listening to? Has the study proved what you already suspected?

Source: ScienceDaily, ScienceDirect