Display options
Cite
Mesz B, Rodriguez Zivic PH, Cecchi GA, et al. The music of morality and logic. Front Psychol. 2015;6:908doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2015.00908.
Mesz, B., Rodriguez Zivic, P. H., Cecchi, G. A., Sigman, M., & Trevisan, M. A. (2015). The music of morality and logic. Frontiers in psychology, 6908. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2015.00908
Mesz, Bruno, et al. "The music of morality and logic." Frontiers in psychology vol. 6 (2015): 908. doi: https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2015.00908
Mesz B, Rodriguez Zivic PH, Cecchi GA, Sigman M, Trevisan MA. The music of morality and logic. Front Psychol. 2015 Jul 01;6:908. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2015.00908. eCollection 2015. PMID: 26191020; PMCID: PMC4486752.
Copy Download .nbib Format: NLM
Share it on

Front Psychol. 2015 Jul 01;6:908. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2015.00908. eCollection 2015.

The music of morality and logic.

Frontiers in psychology

Bruno Mesz, Pablo H Rodriguez Zivic, Guillermo A Cecchi, Mariano Sigman, Marcos A Trevisan

Affiliations

  1. Department of Science and Technology, National University of Quilmes Buenos Aires, Argentina.
  2. Computation Department, University of Buenos Aires Buenos Aires, Argentina.
  3. Biometaphorical Computing, Thomas J. Watson Research Center, IBM Yorktown Heights, NY, USA.
  4. Integrative Neuroscience Lab, Physics Department, University of Buenos Aires-IFIBA, Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas Buenos Aires, Argentina ; Business School, Universidad Torcuato Di Tella Buenos Aires, Argentina.
  5. Dynamical Systems Lab, Physics Department, University of Buenos Aires-IFIBA, Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas Buenos Aires, Argentina.

PMID: 26191020 PMCID: PMC4486752 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2015.00908

Abstract

Musical theory has built on the premise that musical structures can refer to something different from themselves (Nattiez and Abbate, 1990). The aim of this work is to statistically corroborate the intuitions of musical thinkers and practitioners starting at least with Plato, that music can express complex human concepts beyond merely "happy" and "sad" (Mattheson and Lenneberg, 1958). To do so, we ask whether musical improvisations can be used to classify the semantic category of the word that triggers them. We investigated two specific domains of semantics: morality and logic. While morality has been historically associated with music, logic concepts, which involve more abstract forms of thought, are more rarely associated with music. We examined musical improvisations inspired by positive and negative morality (e.g., good and evil) and logic concepts (true and false), analyzing the associations between these words and their musical representations in terms of acoustic and perceptual features. We found that music conveys information about valence (good and true vs. evil and false) with remarkable consistency across individuals. This information is carried by several musical dimensions which act in synergy to achieve very high classification accuracy. Positive concepts are represented by music with more ordered pitch structure and lower harmonic and sensorial dissonance than negative concepts. Music also conveys information indicating whether the word which triggered it belongs to the domains of logic or morality (true vs. good), principally through musical articulation. In summary, improvisations consistently map logic and morality information to specific musical dimensions, testifying the capacity of music to accurately convey semantic information in domains related to abstract forms of thought.

Keywords: logic; morality; music psychology; musical structure; semantic content

References

  1. Nat Neurosci. 1999 Apr;2(4):382-7 - PubMed
  2. Psychol Sci. 2009 Aug;20(8):1019-25 - PubMed
  3. J Acoust Soc Am. 2005 Jul;118(1):471-82 - PubMed
  4. Psychol Rev. 2011 Jan;118(1):57-75 - PubMed
  5. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2013 Apr 2;110(14):5648-53 - PubMed
  6. Cereb Cortex. 2012 Jan;22(1):209-20 - PubMed
  7. Cognition. 2013 Apr;127(1):1-5 - PubMed
  8. J Physiol Paris. 2008 Jan-May;102(1-3):59-70 - PubMed
  9. Nat Neurosci. 2004 Mar;7(3):302-7 - PubMed
  10. Neuron. 2005 Nov 3;48(3):509-20 - PubMed
  11. J Pers Soc Psychol. 1999 Apr;76(4):574-86 - PubMed
  12. Psychol Rev. 2009 Jul;116(3):463-98 - PubMed
  13. Emotion. 2007 May;7(2):377-87 - PubMed
  14. Br J Psychol. 2012 Aug;103(3):293-301 - PubMed
  15. J Neurosci. 2008 Nov 19;28(47):12224-30 - PubMed
  16. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2013 Jun 11;110(24):10034-8 - PubMed
  17. Perception. 2011;40(2):209-19 - PubMed
  18. Science. 2001 Sep 14;293(5537):2105-8 - PubMed
  19. Perspect Psychol Sci. 2007 Sep;2(3):227-41 - PubMed
  20. Emotion. 2008 Aug;8(4):494-521 - PubMed
  21. Percept Psychophys. 2000 Jan;62(1):66-80 - PubMed
  22. Psychol Rev. 2001 Oct;108(4):814-34 - PubMed
  23. Conscious Cogn. 2000 Jun;9(2 Pt 1):149-71 - PubMed

Publication Types