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Rumination and sad music: A review of the literature and a future direction

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 The Second International Conference on Music Communication Science, 3-4 December 2009, Sydney, Australia
http://marcs.uws.edu.au/links/ICoMusic09/index.html
RUMINATION AND SAD MUSIC: A REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE AND A
FUTURE DIRECTION
Sandra Garrido
School of English, Media and Performing Arts
University of New South Wales.
ABSTRACT
The mood-management theory of music preference assumes
that people make choices based on a desire to improve or
sustain a good mood. However, this theory does not adequately
explain why some people enjoy listening to sad music. The
purpose of this paper is to explore one of the predictors of the
selection of sad music. Patterns of thinking which may provide
exceptions to mood-management theory will be discussed. In
particular, this paper will examine the possibility that the
tendency to ruminate is correlated to an attraction to music that
portrays negative emotions such as sadness.
1. THE INFLUENCE OF MOOD ON
RESPONSE TO MUSIC
The theory of mood management (Zillmann 1988; Knobloch
and Zillmann 2002) assumes that individuals seek to diminish
bad moods, and to perpetuate good moods (p. 328). Thus the
assumption is that choices in music will reflect that intention.
However, this does not explain why people at times choose to
listen to sad music or to watch sad films. The theory also
assumes that all listening choices reflect adaptive methods of
emotional regulation. However, as Strizhakova & Krcmar (2007)
state, “..we do not always want or indeed strive to be in a good,
upbeat mood” (p. 110).
Several theories suggest motivations that may override the
hedonistic ones of mood management theory. Nabi et al (2006)
argue that the consumption of media relevant to one’s life may
assist in coping with feelings of regret (p. 704). Levinson
suggested that some people listen to sad music because it gives
them an opportunity to experience such emotions in a non-
threatening context (1990). However, these arguments all imply
once again that these are deliberate strategies to help the listener
achieve emotional balance.
While these motivations may be involved in the listening
choices of some people, there may also be some whose
motivations are not quite so rational. Evidence indicates that
certain maladaptive thinking patterns may also be predictors of
an attraction to sad music. While studies of mood management
theory have typically found that people tend to choose media
which will improve or sustain positive moods, other studies
ISBN 978-1-74108-203-6
report differing results amongst subjects suffering from
depression. A study of adolescents with major depressive
disorder (Dillman Carpentier, Brown et al. 2008) found that
when experiencing a negative mood, subjects did not often use
media to improve their moods. The authors claim that little
attention has been given to how mental health may affect choice
of media (p. 144). Some people may be overly attracted to sad
music or other media precisely because of a tendency towards
melancholy or dysphoria although their choice of music in fact
perpetuates this state.
2. RUMINATION
The word ‘rumination’ in its original sense refers to the way
cows and other animals regurgitate partially digested food to
chew over it more thoroughly (1989). In psychology it refers to
bringing a thought back to mind over and over (Joorman 2005).
Depression is strongly related to a tendency to ruminate (Nolen-
Hoeksema 1991).
While there is no unified definition or standardized way of
measuring rumination (Smith and Alloy 2009), one of the most
widely used understandings of rumination is Nolen-Hoeksema’s
(1991) description of it as thinking repetitively and passively
about one’s depressive symptoms, their causes and
consequences. Joorman (2005) gives a somewhat broader
description of it as an involuntary focus on negative and
pessimistic thoughts about one’s self, the world and the future
(see also Conway, Csank et al. 2000). Rumination appears to be
response style which is stable over long time periods rather than
a transitive state (Smith and Alloy 2009).
Rumination in this sense can be distinguished from ‘reflective
private self-attentiveness’. This distinction was proposed by
Trapnell and Campbell (1999) as a solution to the ‘self-
absorption paradox,’ the fact that a disposition to reflect and to
examine the self is viewed as a highly adaptive and
psychologically healthy trait, but it is also associated with
neuroticism, depression and poor self-esteem. Trapnell and
Campbell argued that it is the ruminative rather than the
reflective aspect of private self-focus which is maladaptive.
Thus it would likely be rumination in this sense that would
cause a depression sufferer to choose music that will not help
improve their mood.
Research indicates that conditions such as Major Depressive
Disorder do in fact, affect the sufferer’s capacity for mood
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 The Second International Conference on Music Communication Science, 3-4 December 2009, Sydney, Australia
http://marcs.uws.edu.au/links/ICoMusic09/index.html
regulation. Depression is described as a disorder of affect
dysregulation with associated behaviour that prolongs sad
feelings and reduced motivation to do things that would
improve mood (Forbes and Dahl 2005). Rumination seems to
keep depressogenic schemata active and hinders more active
coping strategies (Spasojevic and Alloy 2001) thus prolonging a
depressed mood (Nolen-Hoeksema 1991). Thus, rumination
may be an important influence on the music choices of
depression sufferers.
Evidence suggests that depression also involves an attentional
bias towards negative stimuli (Bradley, Mogg et al. 1997;
Gotlib, Krasnoperova et al. 2004). Dysphoric students are
slower to name the colour of an ink when it spells a word of
negative valence (Gotlib and McCann 1984) and form more
negative sentences from scrambled words than others, even
when no longer dysphoric (Wenzlaff and Bates 1998).
Rumination is also associated with a tendency to interpret facial
expressions as conveying negative emotions (Raes, Hermans et
al. 2006) and recall of negatively biased memories
(Lyubomirsky, Caldwell et al. 1998).
Since the effects of rumination are obviously detrimental, the
question remains as to why people engage in it. Bradley &
Mogg et al. (1997) suggest that this attentional bias may occur
because of a difficulty in detaching from negative input once it
has come to attention. There may be inhibitory mechanisms
which are malfunctioning. Dysphorics induced to engage in
self-focused rumination demonstrate reduced willingness to
engage in pleasant, distracting activities that could lift their
moods, even when they believe they would enjoy those
activities (Lyubomirsky and Nolen-Hoeksema 1993). Siegle,
Steinhauer, Thase et al (2002) found that whereas non-
depressed individuals displayed amygdala responses to all
stimuli that quickly decayed after offset, depressed individuals
displayed sustained amygdala responses to negative words. It is
possible that since negative thoughts are habitual in depressed
people it takes more controlled attention and therefore more
effort to attend to non-negative material (Hertel 2004).
Alternatively, Moulds & Kandris et al. (2007) propose that
rumination may be an avoidance strategy which allows the
ruminator to evade active engagement in problem-solving (see
also Watkins and Moulds 2005). Some researchers also argue
that ruminators believe it will help them gain insight into their
problems (Lyubomirsky and Nolen-Hoeksema 1993;
Papageorgiou and Wells 2001; Watkins and Baracaia 2001;
Watkins 2004).
However, Smith & Alloy (2009) suggest that labelling
rumination as a conscious and controlled thinking process,
rather than unconscious or automatic, may be inaccurate (p.
126). Most studies rely on self-report measures which require
that participants have access to their own thought processes. As
well as being unaware of the processes at work, ruminators may
also feel a need to justify such maladaptive practices, even to
themselves.
ISBN 978-1-74108-203-6
In fact rather than being a conscious coping strategy, Silk et al.
(2003) characterized rumination as an involuntary response, one
that “may or may not be under conscious awareness and are not
enacted volitionally” (p. 1870). Therefore, it is possible that for
many people rumination is a habitual thinking pattern which
would take a great deal of effort to disengage from. Thus, as
Lyubomirsky and Nolen-Hoeksema (1993) suggest, ruminators
may not engage in distracting activities because “they lack the
efficacy to do so” (p. 346). Therefore, cognitive therapy for
depression sufferers largely focuses on teaching people to
retrain this type of thinking (Wright and Beck 1983).
3. MUSIC AND RUMINATION
If ruminators find it difficult to disengage from negative stimuli,
and indeed demonstrate an attentional bias towards it, it follows
that this would be also be apparent in their listening choices. In
one study designed to look at ways to circumvent the verbal
barriers to expressing emotion that many patients with Major
Depressive Disorder have, it was found that depressed subjects
chose more descriptive labels in response to sad music than to
other excerpts (Bodner, Iancu et al. 2007). Patients were played
passages of classical music chosen to display sadness,
happiness, fear and anger. Depressed patients showed a
heightened response to the sad excerpts, while the control group
showed the opposite response (p. 148).
Chen & Zhou et al. (2007) predicted that most people in a sad
mood would be attracted to negative media initially, but that
after some time would feel motivated to diminish their negative
mood (p. 698). This was confirmed by their study. However,
they also found that ruminators spent more time on distressing
music than non-ruminators and seemed to lack the desire to rid
themselves of their negative mood (p. 710).
The studies mentioned above indicate that within a laboratory
situation, ruminators appear to have a stronger response towards
the sad music they are presented with. However, these studies
have not examined the question of the subjects’ own
preferences and what they choose to listen to outside of the
contrived setting of the laboratory. They also have not
accounted for the affect of genre preferences and familiarity on
the response of participants (Schubert 2007).
Rentfrow and Gosling (2003) on the other hand report findings
indicating that depressed people commonly chose music which
sustained their melancholic mood (p.1237), but have not
identified whether rumination may be the aspect of depression
most strongly implicated. Interestingly, in relation to film
preferences, Oliver (1993) found that people who scored highly
on ‘sadness orientation’ were amongst those most likely to
choose sad films (p.336). A similar result may be found in
relation to rumination and music choices. Although a sad mood
may motivate some people to choose music that will help repair
their mood, rumination and the emotional dysregulation
accompanying depression likely disrupts this process.
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 The Second International Conference on Music Communication Science, 3-4 December 2009, Sydney, Australia
http://marcs.uws.edu.au/links/ICoMusic09/index.html
4. CONCLUSION AND FUTURE
DIRECTION
There is likely no single reason that some people enjoy negative
emotions in music. Individual personality traits may allow some
to experience pleasure when listening to sad music (Schubert
1996; Schubert 2007), while others may exhibit a preference for
cheerful music. Some, such as Trapnell & Campbell’s
‘reflective’ types (1999) may have various psychologically
healthy reasons for listening to sad music at certain times.
However, there are likely a number of people who are attracted
to sad music despite the fact that it may perpetuate dysphoria.
Habitual ruminators and those suffering from clinical or
undiagnosed depression appear to have an involuntary bias
towards negative stimuli and therefore provide an exception to
mood management theory.
Future studies would benefit from looking at the various traits
that may correlated with a liking for sad music. Rumination
may be one such trait. Future research should also consider
whether ruminators are merely less likely to disengage from sad
music when presented with it, or whether they exhibit a
preference for listening to this type of music in their daily life.
In addition, it is not entirely clear whether rumination is specific
to depression or is involved in various other mental health
problems as well (Smith and Alloy 2009). The correlation
between music choices and rumination, depression and other
emotional and mental conditions will also provide interesting
subjects for further research.
5. REFERENCES
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