Getting aesthetic chills from music: The connection between openness to experience and frisson

Earlier research has emphasized the emotional nature of frisson (pleasurable aesthetic chills) and has suggested that the personality trait Openness to Experience may predict more frisson episodes. The present study tested these notions by administering a measure of Openness and inducing actual instances of frisson using musical stimuli. One hundred college students completed the NEO-PI-R, which assesses the five factors of personality (Openness, Extraversion, Neuroticism, Agreeableness, and Conscientiousness), and then listened to five musical selections that were likely to elicit frisson. Frisson was assessed via a combined self-report and physiological (galvanic skin response) measure. As predicted, frequency of frisson was positively correlated with overall Openness to Experience, as well as five of its six subfacets: Fantasy, Aesthetics, Feelings, Ideas, and Values. Examination of the more specific relationships suggests the possibility that cognitive attentiveness to music may be more closely related to frisson than had been emphasized in past research.