Aesthetics and Affect in Broader Perspective

Abstract

This chapter broadens the perspective and discuss some questions raised by the model outlined in Chapter 30. Are aesthetic judgments reliable? Do listeners agree in their ratings of pieces of music? How is aesthetic judgment influenced by the social context? What role does music preference play in emotional responses? Should we distinguish between utilitarian and aesthetic uses of music? To address these issues, there is a need to measure aesthetic judgments using a statistical technique called multiple regression analysis. Judgment analysts use multiple regression models to capture how individual raters combine multiple differentially-weighted bits of information (‘cues’) to arrive at an overall judgment.