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Terrifying film music mimics alarming acoustic feature of human screams
Caitlyn Trevor1, Luc H Arnal2, Sascha Frühholz1
1Department of Psychology, University of Zurich, Binzmuehlestrasse 14, 8050 Zurich, Switzerland.
Abstract:
One way music is thought to convey emotion is by mimicking acoustic features of affective human vocalizations [Juslin and Laukka (2003). Psychol. Bull. 129(5), 770-814]. Regarding fear, it has been informally noted that music for scary scenes in films frequently exhibits a "scream-like" character. Here, this proposition is formally tested. This paper reports acoustic analyses for four categories of audio stimuli: screams, non-screaming vocalizations, scream-like music, and non-scream-like music. Valence and arousal ratings were also collected. Results support the hypothesis that a key feature of human screams (roughness) is imitated by scream-like music and could potentially signal danger through both music and the voice.
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