Affective response to a set of new musical stimuli.

Recently, a novel set of musical stimuli was developed in an attempt to bring more rigor to a paradigm which often falls under scientific scrutiny. Although these musical clips were validated in terms of recognition for emotion, valence, and arousal, the clips were not specifically tested for their ability to elicit certain affective responses. The present study examined self-reported "elation" among 82 participants after listening to one of two types of the musical clips; 47 listened to happy music and 35 listened to sad music. Individuals who listened to happy music reported significantly higher "elation" than individuals who listened to the sad music. These results support the idea that music can elicit certain affective state responses.