Emotion Recognition in Improvised Music: The Case of the Multicultural Israeli Society

The current study explored whether people of different cultures within the same country differ in emotion recognition, when recognizing emotions in improvisations played on different instruments. Participants (n = 202) from several cultures in Israel (i.e., Israeli-born Jews [IBJs], Israeli-Russian immigrants, and Israeli-Arabs and Druze) listened to 40 pieces conveying five emotions (anger, fear, sadness, happiness, and serenity) and decoded their emotional content. The improvisations were performed by four IBJ musicians on four instruments (piano, darbuka, voice, and kazoo). No differences were found between the groups regarding four of the emotions and three of the instruments. However, IBJs were more accurate in identifying fear and emotions conveyed by kazoo. These findings demonstrate that people from different cultures within the same country have a similar ability to recognize emotions expressed through different musical instruments, with the exception of specific emotions and mediums. The results of this study also emphasize the potential of communication of emotions through musical intercultural encounters. Nevertheless, since the study was not based on a balanced factorial design, its findings should be interpreted with caution. Future studies that are based on an orthogonal study design need to examine the replicability of its findings.