Evaluative and emotional routes to audience intention in musical-theater singing: An integrated response architecture

Audience responses to vocal performances involve complex psychological processes beyond general aesthetic liking. However, less is known about how vocal appraisal, perceived emotional meaning, and future engagement intention are related. This study examined how technical-expressive perception (TEP), emotional perception (EP), and audience intention (AI) are related in responses to musical-theater singing. We used a single-wave survey of 306 adult musical-theater listeners in China to test their associations and compare them across attendance-frequency groups. Technical-expressive perception was strongly associated with emotional perception. Emotional perception was more closely related to audience intention than technical-expressive perception. In the indirect-association model, the remaining link between technical-expressive perception and audience intention was no longer reliable after emotional perception was included. This suggests that emotional perception was more closely tied to future engagement intention. Attendance frequency was related to technical-expressive perception and emotional perception, but not to audience intention. More frequent attendees reported higher vocal appraisal and emotional perception, whereas audience intention did not differ reliably across groups. These findings show that technical-expressive perception, emotional perception, and audience intention were related but not equivalent. The study's main contribution is the Audience Response Architecture, which explains how these three responses are connected but play different roles in responses to musical-theater singing. This framework contributes to music and performance psychology by showing why studies of audience intention should distinguish between how listeners appraise vocal delivery and how they perceive emotional meaning.