Abstract: There is little research as to how different elements may affect the way a person responds to dissonant music. The researcher chose to look at empathy and whether or not a person’s amount of empathy correlates with how they respond to musical dissonance. Participants were high school juniors who attend Hampton High School, aged 16-17. Data was collected using an initial survey to get an empathy score for each respondent, and the interview portion was a survey as well. During the interview portion, heart rate and body language were also forms of data that were collected for the purpose of the study. It was found that empathy does not correlate with dissonant response. It was also found that although empathy does not impact dissonant response, a phenomenon known as familiarity bias does. These findings imply the power of dissonance to negatively affect the general population regardless of most outside factors and leaves room for researchers to discover what other factors may impact response to musical dissonance.