Heike Argstatter. Psychology of Music June 16, 2015. Published online before print June 16, 2015, doi: 10.1177/0305735615589214

Questions:

– How are six basic universal emotions (happiness, sadness, fear, disgust, anger, surprise) perceivable in music unknown to listeners with different cultural backgrounds?
– Which particular aspects of musical emotions show similarities and differences across cultural boundaries?

Method:

The Western European participants came from Germany and Norway, and the Asian participants came from Indonesia and South Korea. Professional musicians were instructed to improvise short musical pieces on instruments of their choice in a way that a listener should be able to decode one of the intended basic emotions (happiness, anger, disgust, surprise, sadness, and fear). Duration of the segments was limited to a maximum of 7 seconds. Different instruments. NB! All from western culture!

Answers:

To both questions the answer is: Generally, yes.