Cues and Signals: An Ethological Approach to Music-Related Emotion

Abstract

Ethology (the study of animal behaviour) offers useful insights for better understanding how musical sounds evoke emotions in listeners. Modern ethological research has fused semiotic concepts like signals and indices with evolutionary theory. The concepts are illustrated using empirical research on sadness, grief, smiling, pouting, cuteness, and sarcasm. An evolutionary perspective exposes significant problems with the commonly assumed emotion communication model (ECM). Building on the work of Morton (1977), an acoustic ethological model (AEM) is presented. It is suggested that ethological signals offer a fourth mechanism (along with learned associations, mirror processes, and cognitive assessments) by which sounds may evoke emotions in listeners.

Keywords

• theories of the living
• emotions
• sound