Why do we listen to sad songs?

In the second part of the experiment, which involved 450 new subjects, the researchers gave each participant 72 descriptions of emotional songs, which expressed feelings, including “contempt,” “narcissism,” “inspiration,” and “lust.” For comparison, they also gave participants prompts that described a conversational interaction in which someone expressed their feelings. (For example, “An acquaintance talks to you about their week and expresses feelings of wistfulness.”) In general, the emotions that the subjects felt deeply rooted in “what music is all about” were also the emotions that made people feel more connected in conversation: love, joy, loneliness, sadness, ecstasy, calmness, sadness.

Mario Attie-Picker, a philosopher at Loyola University Chicago who helped lead the research, found the results compelling. After studying the data, he proposed a relatively simple idea: Perhaps we don’t listen to music for an emotional response—many subjects reported that sad music, while artistic, wasn’t particularly enjoyable—but for the sense of connection with others. Applied to the paradox of sad music, our love of music is not a direct appreciation of sadness, it is an appreciation of connection. Dr. Knobe and Dr. Venkatesan were soon aboard.

“I’m already a believer,” Dr. Eerola said when he was told about the study. In his own research, he has found that people are extremely empathetic more likely to be moved by unknown sad music. “They’re willing to participate in this kind of fictional sadness that the music brings them,” he said. These people also show more major hormonal changes in response to sad music.

But sad music is layered – it’s an onion – and this explanation raises more questions. Who do we connect with? The artist? Our past self? An imaginary person? And how can sad music be “all about” a thing? Doesn’t the power of art come partly from its ability to transcend summary, to expand experience?

Each of the researchers recognized the complexity of their subject and the limitations of existing work. And then Dr. Attie-Picker made a less philosophical argument for their results: “It just feels right,” he said.

Audio produced by Adrianne Hurst.