Tuomas Eerola

Tuomas Eerola

Tuomas Eerola is a researcher and co-author of a 2017 study of sad music and being moved, published in Frontiers in Psychology.

Who they are

Eerola co-wrote the 2017 study with Jonna Vuoskoski. Two experiments tested why people like sad music. In the first, 308 participants heard five sad excerpts, and being moved fully mediated the link between felt sadness and liking. In the second, 27 excerpts varied in sadness and in beauty, and the movingness account received stronger support than the beauty account.

The article on sad films cites the study as a second line of evidence for the role of being moved.

Key papers

Vuoskoski, J. K. and Eerola, T. (2017), Frontiers in Psychology 8, 439.

Key ideas

Felt sadness and liking are linked through being moved.

Beauty alone did not account for the pleasure as well as movingness did.

Sources

  1. Vuoskoski, J. K. and Eerola, T. (2017), Frontiers in Psychology 8, 439.