Emotion perceived and emotion felt: Same and different

The goal of the present study was to examine the relationships and differences between emotion perceived (i.e., the emotional quality expressed by music) and emotion felt (i.e., the individual's emotional response to music). Thirty-two participants listened to 12 music pieces differing in terms of a priori basic emotional quality, and rated the music from two points of view (i.e., emotion felt and emotion perceived) using 16 adjectives from dimensional models of emotion. As expected, in general, music seemed to arouse emotions similar to the emotional quality perceived in music. However, the affect ratings were significantly moderated by the point of view from which the emotions were assessed. Felt emotions were stronger than perceived emotions in connection with pleasure, but weaker in connection with arousal, positive activation, and negative activation. As also expected, negative perceived quality in music elicited less or an opposite felt emotion. That is, fearful music was perceived as negative but felt as positive.