Individual Differences Research

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Individual Differences Research > Volume 14 (2016) > e14003

Are Music Perceptions Biased by Priming Effects of Journalism?

Mark C. Gridley, Robert Hoff

Abstract

A study was undertaken to determine whether expressed journalist perceptions of emotion would bias the perception of listeners. A sample of 142 undergraduate psychology students from two different colleges listened to a recorded jazz saxophone improvisation and indicated their perception of emotion on a 7-point scale of friendly – angry. Half the participants preceded their listening by reading that a journalist had reviewed the music as angry. Perceptions of anger in the music were significantly higher among those listeners than among listeners who had not read the journalist’s remark.