why we listen to sad music?

A column which I wrote was appeared in the Sunday Review of New York Times.

⇒New York Times

I talked about the reason why we listen to sad music in a BBC radio program!

⇒BBC

Sadness is per se unpleasent emotion, and from an approach-avoidance perspective, people should tend to avoid music that induces sadness.

Then, why do we like sad music as much as, or sometimes more than happy music though it is likely to evoke an unpleasant emotion?

We hypothesized that sad music would be perceived as sad, but the experience of listening to sad music would evoke positive emotions. We conducted a psychological experiment using three kinds of music. The results revealed taht music that was perceived as sad actually induced romantic emotion as well as sad emotion.

Why do we experience such an ambivalent emotion to listen to sad music?

We propose a "vicarious emotion."

Unlike sadness in daily life, sadness experienced through listening to music as a form of art could include pleasant characteristics, possibl because the latter does not relate to actual threat to our safety. While such emotion, of course, still includes sad component, we can enjoy it aesthecally because of the lack of need for avoidance. We call this kind of emotion as "vicarious emotion."