2024 Travel Guide A new study published by Japanese researchers in the open-access journal Frontiers in Psychology shows that sadness may actually evoke positive emotions. Ai Kawakami and colleagues at Tokyo University of the Arts and Japan's Riken Brain Science Institute say the findings help explain why people enjoy listening to sad **.
Kawakami and his colleagues asked 44 volunteers, including **family and lay people**, to listen to two sad ** and one happy**.
Each participant was asked to rate their perception of ** and their emotional state using a set of keywords.
The sad ** includes Linka's "Separation" in F minor and Blumenfeld's "Etude at Sea" in G minor.
The happy ** is the Allegro Concerto in G major by Granados.
In order to control the "happy" effect brought about by the major key, they also switched the minor key work to the major key and vice versa.
The researchers explained that sad ** evoked conflicting emotions because study participants tended to feel sad ** more miserable, less romantic, and less happy than they themselves were listening to it.
In general, sad ** causes sadness in the listener, and sadness is often seen as an unpleasant emotion. If sad ** actually only evokes unpleasant emotions, we wouldn't listen to it. The researchers wrote in the study.
** that is perceived as sad actually evokes not only sad emotions but also romantic emotions. People, regardless of their training, experience this ambivalence, especially when listening to sad **. The researchers added.
In addition, unlike grief in everyday life, grief experienced through art actually feels pleasant, probably because the latter does not pose an actual threat to our safety.
This may help people deal with their negative emotions in their daily lives, the authors conclude.
The emotions experienced through ** are different from those experienced in everyday life, which are not directly dangerous or harmful. As a result, we can even enjoy unpleasant emotions such as sadness. If we are suffering from unpleasant emotions that are evoked in our daily lives, sad ** may help to alleviate negative emotions. They added.