Understanding the Structural Components Behind the Psychological Effects of Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response (ASMR) With Machine Learning and Experimental Methods

Abstract. Autonomous sensory meridian response (ASMR) is a tingling sensation occurring in response to specific sensory stimuli. Scholarship has yet to investigate what attributes these stimuli possess that allows them to facilitate desirable emotional effects through such atypical psycho-sensorial experiences. In this exploratory investigation, Study 1 utilized machine learning methods to categorize ASMR content based on their sound structures. Four categories emerged that were then used in a second study that utilized an online experiment ( N = 230) to investigate relationships between the categories of sound structures and participants’ psychological experiences of ASMR. These findings help us understand how ASMR content generates arousal and affect that audiences seek.