A psychometric evaluation of emotional responses to horror music

This research explores and designs an effective experimental interface to evaluate people's emotional responses to horror music. We studied methodological approaches by using traditional psychometric techniques to measure emotional responses, including self-reporting, and galvanic skin response (GSR). GSR correlates with psychological arousal. It can help circumvent a problem in self-reporting where people are unwilling to report particular felt responses, or confuse perceived and felt responses. We also consider the influence of familiarity. Familiarity can induce learned emotional responses rather than listeners describing how it actually makes them feel. The research revealed different findings in self-reports and GSR data. Both measurements had an interaction between music and familiarity but show inconsistent results from the perspective of simple effects.