Study: Some People Have No Emotional Response to Music

Posted by freedomforall 10 years, 3 months ago to Science
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Note: This study probably didn't cost US taxpayers anything (unless Spain used US aid to pay for it.)
Psychologists at the University of Barcelona stumbled upon this while they were screening participants for a study by using responses to music to gauge emotion. They were surprised to find that music wasn't important at all to about 5 percent of the people — they said they didn't bob up and down to tunes they liked, didn't get weepy, didn't get chills. It was like they couldn't feel the music at all.


All Comments

  • Posted by $ allosaur 10 years, 3 months ago in reply to this comment.
    I see you have selected "coo-coo," the rational choice.
    "Bwa-ha-ha!" would be what Comrade Citizen, my Mr. Hyde, would say, for he would feel empowered by the fairy tale notion of shape-shifting.
    Comrade Citizen would be an Obama voter if he were really real.
    Logical people can creatively make up characters. Ayn Rand could. Maybe not as silly.
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  • Posted by Non_mooching_artist 10 years, 3 months ago in reply to this comment.
    I cannot believe this... Wow. Things make soooo much more sense now, like how the freak in the Oval Office was elected not once, but twice.... I'm stunned here. Incredulous, really..
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  • Posted by Owlsrayne 10 years, 3 months ago
    I myself love different kinds of music from Classic Rock, Anime Music, Christian Music and a number of contemporary artists. The most soaring piece of music is Beck's Bolero by Jeff Beck, Tribal Music-Scatterings of Africa by Johnny Clegg, Russian Metal-Slavsia by Arkona, Gregorian-Deus by Vox Nova, and Contemporary Christian-Need You Now by Plumb. That just a smattering of the music I like.
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  • Posted by Herb7734 10 years, 3 months ago in reply to this comment.
    Nope. I use a fancy keyboard now. I gave the 'bone to a music teacher and made him swear that he'd give it to a kid who showed talent and a desire to learn. I went to hear him play with the high school band. He was already better than me and he was only 16.
    Happy New Year -- Health * Love * Prosperity
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  • Posted by wdg3rd 10 years, 3 months ago
    30 volunteers, and 5% had no response? If there were 20 subjects, 5% would be exactly one of them. To get an even 5% with more than one such, you need 40 subjects. 30 subjects is in the middle of that (maybe somebody brought his dog).
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  • Posted by H2ungar123 10 years, 3 months ago in reply to this comment.
    Hey Herb! "It's Make Believe Ball-Room Time" Let's Dance! Been great taking this walk down Memory Lane with you. You still
    have the large bore trombone??? I still have my piano....Happy New Year to you and yours....

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  • Posted by Herb7734 10 years, 3 months ago in reply to this comment.
    The reason I got hired is that one of his trombone men couldn't get up while in Detroit (probably too drunk) and he needed someone who could play a pedal B Flat for his theme song "Night Train." It required a large bore trombone, which I had. I answered an ad and there I was. They used to say that Buddy Rich had the fastest hands of any drummer. He could do a single stroke drum roll so fast his hands became a blur.
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  • Posted by H2ungar123 10 years, 3 months ago in reply to this comment.
    Herb! How impressive!! And you even made
    some arrangements! WOW! I played piano
    but never toured and played, like you stated,
    REAL music which we just don't hear anymore. Speaking of Buddy Morrow reminds me of another drummer, Buddy Rich! That guy was something else! Agree
    with you.....a looooong time ago!
    me
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  • Posted by 10 years, 3 months ago in reply to this comment.
    Some people just have a lower input threshold for all types of stimuli. Interesting book on that topic is Quiet: The Power of Introverts by Susan Cain.
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  • Posted by Non_mooching_artist 10 years, 3 months ago
    That's so odd to me. Even music I don't care for makes me at least move to the beat. I can't sit still when I listen to music! I love it, and some genre or other is always playing in my house.
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  • Posted by Non_mooching_artist 10 years, 3 months ago in reply to this comment.
    OMG these people are serious!! Oh I laughed, but stopped abruptly, because they believe this tripe! I mean, it's possible, probable even, that ovomit isn't human, but...
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  • Posted by johnpe1 10 years, 3 months ago
    I spent 50 years toting music and dj gear around,
    for friends and compatriots at work, and there
    definitely were people who were neutral or
    negative about the music -- some nearly violent.......
    we had to develop a method of "turning it down"
    which just involved changing the equalizer curve
    to reduce the intensity of the strong stuff (coulda
    used a compressor, but didn't have one).
    then, gradually, we returned to the full intensity
    to see if they'd complain again. . made it a game.

    good music reproduced faithfully can really help
    a lot of people enjoy life -- and explore the range
    from Warren Kime to Liz Story to Booker T to
    The Strawberry Alarm Clock to Glenn Miller to
    Bob Seger to Karen Carpenter to the Pointer
    Sisters to Stevie Wonder to Joanie Madden to
    Chet Atkins to Ronnie Milsap to Vladimir Horowitz
    to Jimi Hendrix to Mary Costa to Garth Hudson --
    and there is always room for more!!! -- j

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  • Posted by fivedollargold 10 years, 3 months ago
    Good point Frodo. Research clearly demonstrates that anti-socials show little or no response to emotionally-laden words. $5Au will check the literature re: music.
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  • Posted by jpellone 10 years, 3 months ago
    That 5% must have been dead!!! I'm not much for country music but my mom had me check out the song "Daddy's Hands" about 10 years ago and I must admit that song should stir something in all men or daughters!!!
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  • Posted by Herb7734 10 years, 3 months ago in reply to this comment.
    Speaking of Tommy Dorsey, I was also a trombonist. I toured with the Buddy Morrow band for a year before I realized I loved playing with the band, but hated touring. I met Buddy again at Busch Gardens about ten years ago. He didn't remember me. I hate to think that I was only 19 back then, and I remember thinking of him as an older guy -- he must have been all of 30. To me, we played real music, jazz and swing. No one knew anything about guitars. We were four saxes, three trumpets three trombones, a string bass, a piano, drums, two singers and Buddy. One sax player doubled on clarinet, another doubled on flute, and we had two guys who arranged, and I also made a couple of arrangements. Man, that was a loooong time ago.
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  • Posted by H2ungar123 10 years, 3 months ago in reply to this comment.
    OMG Brother Herb!! Mentioning Tommy D.
    brings to mind Jimmy Dorsey, Charlie Barnett,
    Gene Krupa - I'm gonna start to cry!! And
    the great Ella Fitzgerald!! Louie Armstrong =
    here come the tears!!! Thanx!!
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  • Posted by frodo_b 10 years, 3 months ago
    I wonder if there's a correlation between those who have no emotional response to music and psychopathy.
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  • Posted by RonC 10 years, 3 months ago
    Maybe those +-5% are candidates to become psychopaths? It is said they don't feel any emotion from the crimes they commit. Maybe not feeling music is the superset to an even less feeling subset.
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