ArticlePloS one2023
Musicians and non-musicians show different preference profiles for single chords of varying harmonic complexity.
Article in PloS one, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 7 papers.
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Who cites it
7 citing papers in PubMed, 12 citations in OpenAlex.
- Music and awe: complex emotions evoked by tonal dissonance.Frontiers in psychology · 2026Article
- 4/4 and more, rhythmic complexity more strongly predicts groove in common meters.Communications psychology · 2025Article
- Perceiving Creativity in Novel Musical Sequences: An EEG Study.Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences · 2025Article
- Predictive processes shape individual musical preferences.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2025Article
- Appreciation of singing and speaking voices is highly idiosyncratic.Royal Society open science · 2024Article
- Increased body movement equals better performance? Not always! Musical style determines motion degree perceived as optimal in music performance.Psychological research · 2024Article
- Pleasantness makes a good time: musical consonance shapes interpersonal synchronization in dyadic joint action.Frontiers in human neuroscience · 2024Article
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Authors and funding
6 authors at 4 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The inverted U hypothesis in music predicts that listeners prefer intermediate levels of complexity. However, the shape of the liking response to harmonic complexity and the effect of musicianship remains unclear. Here, we tested whether the relationship between liking and harmonic complexity in single chords shows an inverted U shape and whether this U shape is different for musicians and non-musicians. We recorded these groups' liking ratings for four levels of harmonic complexity, indexed by their level of acoustic roughness, as well as several measures of inter-individual difference. Results showed that there is an inverted U-shaped relationship between harmonic complexity and liking in both musicians and non-musicians, but that the shape of the U is different for the two groups. Non-musicians' U is more left-skewed, with peak liking for low harmonic complexity, while musicians' U is more right-skewed, with highest ratings for medium and low complexity. Furthermore, musicians who showed greater liking for medium compared to low complexity chords reported higher levels of active musical engagement and higher levels of openness to experience. This suggests that a combination of practical musical experience and personality is reflected in musicians' inverted U-shaped preference response to harmonic complexity in chords.
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