Once again, however, it is important to note the within-excerpt changes in physiology in response to the pleasurable pieces, which decrease the possibility that the effects were entirely due to recalling autobiographical events, since these would be relatively consistent throughout the piece.
After listening to each musical excerpt, participants rated the degree of valence and arousal they (1) felt in response to the excerpt, and (2) believed the excerpt was intended to convey.
Paired-sampled t-tests confirmed significant differences between the emotions that participants felt in response to an excerpt with that which they believed the music was intended to convey, with respect to both valence (t(235) = 2.46, p<.01), and arousal (t(235) = 11.96, p<.001).
Finally, after listening to each musical excerpt, participants responded to questions about the number and intensity of chills experienced, and rated the degree of pleasure they experienced in response to the entire excerpt.
(Ms. Weiss noted that nearly 90 percent of the women who wrote to McCall's in response to a second excerpt from the book were critical of Friedan).
Participants who did not report pleasurable states in response to a particular excerpt did not show any significant changes in psychophysiological arousal, whereas others who found those same excerpts pleasurable showed a distinct profile of increasing sympathetic nervous system activity as pleasure increased.
We had further hypothesized that emotions would be more genuinely felt in response to some musical excerpts, namely the self-selected pieces, more so than experimenter-selected pieces.
There have been several pre-publication articles about it, in prominent places, beginning with George Packer in the New Yorker; there was an excerpt in Foreign Policy and then responses to the excerpt.
In response, Mr. Allen released this full statement, an excerpt of which can be read below.
Similar emotion and reward related networks were found to be associated with increasing pleasurable chill ratings in response to listening to self-selected musical excerpts [15] and while listening to music rated as happy (versus sad) [16].
