The Independent – Culture influences whether a musical note is perceived as happy or sad, study finds

Description

News article in The Independent about "Emotional responses in Papua New Guinea show negligible evidence for a universal effect of major versus minor music".

Subject

Major chords are typically seen as ‘happy’ and minor chords as ‘sad,’ but this is not universal.

People’s perception of a musical note as happy or sad is not universal but could be influenced by their culture, according to a new study.

The research, published on Thursday in the journal PLoS One, analysed the differences in people’s emotional perceptions of music in major and minor keys.

Music in a major key is almost universally perceived in Western culture as happy and music in a minor key as sad.

But these emotional associations were not perceived in the same way by remote communities in Papua New Guinea (PNG), found scientists, including those from Western Sydney University in Australia.