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Maybe you’ve experienced it yourself before: that overwhelming feeling at a concert, when singing in a choir… or perhaps while listening to “My Heart Will Go On” by Céline Dion. A sudden shiver down your spine.
And you’re not alone: According to a study by Avram Goldstein, 96% of people have experienced goosebumps when listening to music.
What is it about pieces of music that trigger goosebumps? To find out, Rémi de Fleurian and colleagues compiled a total of 988 pieces of music that had caused goosebumps in participants in previous studies. A few famous examples you might know: “I Will Always Love You” by Whitney Houston, “Shine On You Crazy Diamond” by Pink Floyd, or Bach’s “Toccata in D Minor.”
Want to find out if they can also trigger goosebumps in you? You can find 204 of the 988 songs in a Spotify playlist.
When music breaks expectations
Rémi de Fleurian and his team discovered that certain musical structures trigger goosebumps particularly often – specifically those that break expectations. This can include things like unexpected harmonies, the introduction of a new instrument or a choir, or a switch from major to minor key. Or when the key changes in the chorus – like in “I Will Always Love You” by Whitney Houston.
The brain constantly makes predictions about the world. Even as you’re reading this article right now, your brain is predicting the next word. The same is true for music.
When we listen to music, the brain expects how it will continue. When something happens that the brain predicted incorrectly, a prediction error occurs. And prediction errors are always associated with potential danger. Which brings us to the Vigilance hypothesis.
Our brain on danger
Something unexpected first signals “Danger!” to the amygdala. Because it is better to interpret something harmless as dangerous once than to overlook real danger.
A perfect example: The crescendo. During a crescendo, the music builds, growing louder and louder as more instruments and harmonies join in. We hear this especially often in classical music, and it very often leads to goosebumps. For our amygdala, a crescendo might signal a threat that, with increasing volume, seems to come closer and closer.
Our autonomic nervous system switches into fight-or-flight mode and responds with goosebumps. But shortly afterwards something else happens: Our slower, conscious system signals, “This is not real danger, it’s just music.” Our tension then decreases.
And we feel something else: Relief. Our reward system in the brain becomes active. And we get a dopamine boost. Because the brain wants to learn from a prediction error. Motivated by dopamine, it encourages us to listen to the piece again and again. And suddenly we perceive the goosebumps as something positive.
Goosebumps as a protection mechanism
One question remains: Why would our body react with goosebumps when encountering danger? According to David Huron, who formulated the Vigilance hypothesis, this comes back to our ancestors who – instead of clothes or fire – had fur to warm them from the cold.
For our ancestors, goosebumps might have served several functions: First, the raised hair made them appear larger and more threatening. You can still see this in other animals, like cats. When they get scared, they get goosebumps, too, causing their hair to stand up. Then they look more intimidating. Second, goosebumps could act as a signal to others in the group: “Attention, danger!” Third, the tension in the tiny muscles at the base of the hairs may also have helped reduce blood loss in the case of injury.
Now that we have lost most of our body hair, goosebumps don’t have much of a survival value anymore. But when we get goosebumps from a piece of music that leaves us in awe, they point to something else: Something has gone deeply under our skin.
Author: Charlotte Sachs
Buddy: Amir Homayun
Translator: Lucas Geelen
Editor translation: Maartje Koot
Picture by Wendy Wei
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