Everyone Knows That Feeling When Our Skin Tingles When We Hear A Particular Song. But Did You Know That Getting Chills From Some Song Has An Extremely Significant Meaning?
I know that everyone has experienced it – when a particular song starts playing on the radio or someone sings so beautiful that a shiver goes down your spine. Goosebumps and chills appear as a result of something very special – but what is it?
First of all, let’s see how this anomaly is called: frisson.
Approximately 2/3 of all the people in the world have already experienced frisson: a sensation similar to shivering, and is normally expressed as a result of an overwhelming emotional response.
Mitchell Colver has explained everything about this phenomenon.
Here is what he has written: “Listening to a highly emotional music is something that most often leads to frisson, but some may experience it while looking at some beautiful artwork, watching a certain touching scene in a movie or maybe having a physical contact with a certain person.”
“We Made A Prediction That If Some Person Is More Cognitively Immersed In A Song, Then They Tend To Experience Frisson Caused By Paying Close Attention To The Given Stimuli,” – said Clover.
Fundamentally, the researchers wanted to discover whether the frisson response depends on the type of personality that people have.
To examine this, they wired up the participants to a special machine that can measure the way their skin responded to different pieces of music. Some of the artists were: Hans Zimmer, Chopin, Air Supply and a few others. Scientists claimed that they used these artists in particular because they had some thrilling and climatic moments in their songs that are more likely to cause frisson.
The participants were also given some personality tests, which lead to an interesting finding: the people who experienced frisson had a personality characteristic known as “openness to experience”.
“According to some research people who possess this characteristic usually appreciate beauty and nature, have active imagination, look for new experiences, often experience deep and strong feelings and like variety in their life,” – said Clover.
Furthermore, Clover found out that despite the emotional side of the personality trait, the cognitive trait also causes a reaction to music. For instance, creating an image in your mind about how a song will play out, or using your mind to create a mental imagery throughout the song. The combination of these two things and the pleasant surprise when a certain melody exceeds our expectations all lead to the experience of frisson.
In Other Words: The Sensation Of Frisson Is More Likely To Be Experienced By People Who Are Completely Engaged In Every Single Tone Of The Song – Doing Something Much More Than Just “Listening”.
What’s the last song that you have heard and caused you to feel frisson?
