Available online at:
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J Camosun Psyc Res. (2019). Vol. 1, pp. 64-73.
Submitted February 2019; accepted 8 March 2019.

The influence of music induced chills on time estimation.
Author: Gabriel Waite*
Supervising Instructor: Grace Chan, Psyc 110 (“Experimental Psychology”)
Department of Psychology, Camosun College, 3100 Foul Bay Road, Victoria, BC, Canada V8P 5J2
*Corresponding author email: gabriel.w.waite@gmail.com

ABSTRACT
The present study investigated the effect of music induced chills on time estimation. Ten
individuals who ranked above a threshold rating on a scale which measures sensitivity to music
induced chills participated in the study. Using a prospective paradigm, the experiment gauged
participant accuracy during a time estimation task in two conditions. In one of these conditions,
participants completed the task while listening to music that did not induce chills. In the other
condition, participants completed the task while listening to music that did induce chills. The
hypothesis anticipated that people’s accuracy while performing a time estimation task would be
impacted by listening to music that produces a chills response. This hypothesis was supported by
the results, and the implications of these findings for furthering an understanding of the socialemotional function of music induced chills are discussed, as well as the limitations of the current
study and suggestions for future research.
1. Introduction
Aesthetic emotional experiences are
linked to the reward system, with vast
individual difference in terms of both the
frequency and intensity of these emotions.
Although visual aesthetic experiences are
well researched, recent studies have only
begun to identify the causes and purposes of
auditory aesthetic experiences. Music
induced chills are a physical manifestation
of aesthetic-emotional experience, with
visceral and abstract symptoms ranging from
a sensation of the heart skipping a beat to
feelings of absorption or being moved
(Sachs, Ellis, Schlaug & Louis, 2016).
Despite individual variance in
accompanying symptoms, music induced
chills are characterized by the feeling of
shivering combined with piloerection in the

absence of cold, accompanied by
pleasurable, intense emotion (Grewe,
Kopiez & Altenmüller, 2009). Recent
research pertaining to music induced chills
has illuminated the neural structures which
provide a biological basis for this
phenomenon (Sachs et al., 2016). Observing
the implications and effects of music
induced chills may help create a more
complete picture of the purpose and impacts
of this function, shedding light on why such
variation exists between individuals. Music
induced chills also provides an opportunity
for examining the role of emotion in time
estimation and music, by presenting a
measurable physiological response that can
be defined much more clearly than emotions
themselves can (Grewe et al., 2009).
The power of music to influence time
perception has been well documented.
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Recent years have seen many studies which
aim to isolate the musical factors that impact
the internal human clock in both
retrospective and prospective paradigms.
Perceived time seems to elapse faster when
listening to music (Droit-Volet, Bigand,
Ramos & Bueno, 2010). A study conducted
by Droit-Volet, Ramos, Bueno and Bigand
found that tempo, when isolated, accounted
for increased arousal and sped up the
internal clock (2013). The researchers
recommended future study to isolate and
examine the role of emotion in time
perception and music. One study that
reported a link between the emotional
valence of the music and time perception
considered emotional valence to be a
combination of tempo and mode
(Panagiotidi & Samartzi, 2013). These
studies show that isolating the effect of
emotion from music structure variables has
been challenging, as music structure
elements combine to account for a perceived
emotional valence.
The current study explored utilizing the
presence or absence of music induced chills
to examine the effect of emotion on time
perception in music. This was done by
manipulating the experience of music
induced chills with music chosen to induce
or inhibit a chill response. The participants
performed time estimation tasks during each
condition of the experiment where time was
estimated in seconds in reference to a trained
length of time. This was done while
listening to an emotionally neutral song
during the control condition, and a song that
causes music induced chills in the
experiment condition. A prospective
paradigm was used for the experiment,
wherein participants were aware that they
would be performing a time estimation task.
It was expected that the accuracy of the
participants’ estimation of time would be
impacted while experiencing music induced

chills, considering the existing research on
time estimation, emotional arousal, and
music induced chills. Droit-Volet and
Berthon (2017) produced a study that
indicated that heightened emotions distort
time perceptions. When participants self
assessed their emotional arousal below a
rating of 5 on the 9 point Self-Assessment
Manikin (SAM) scale (adapted from Bradley
& Lang, 1999), there was little distortion of
time. Emotions ranked above this did
produce an effect of time distortion. Based
on this, and the research of Grewe et al.
(2009) which revealed the emotional
significance of music induced chills, it can
be be concluded that music induced chills
may distort time perception by virtue of the
emotionality of this experience.
2. Methods
2.1 Participants
Participants were found through an open
call out over social media, with those
interested contacting the experimenter and
being required to fill out the Aesthetic
Experience Scale for Music (Sachs et al.,
2016) to determine their likelihood to
experience music induced chills in an
experiment setting. Those responding to the
questions with an average ranking of 3 on
the 7 point scale were invited to participate
in the experiment.
Ten individuals were chosen to
participate in the current study, which each
participant completing both the control
phase as well as the experiment phase. Their
ages ranged from 20 to 45 years old with an
average age of 30 years old. 5 females and 4
males participated, with 1 individual who
did not categorize their sex in the terms of
male or female. All participants had
university level education of a bachelor’s
degree or higher. The participants had a
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range of prior musical training from 0 to 15
years, with an average of 2 years.
2.2 Materials and Apparatus
The present study utilized materials
which included a MacBook Pro computer
(15-inch, 2011) for collecting data and
playing audio. Cowen E7 Pro noise
cancelling headphones were used by
participants to listen to audio tracks.
Participants used a digital Sportline 220
Sport Timer stopwatch with the read out
covered with white card stock and tape for
time estimation tasks. The Self Assessment
Manikin (SAM) scale, adapted from Bradley
and Lang (1999) to isolate the question
regarding emotional arousal, was filled out
on the computer. It consists of 9 images to
rank emotional arousal (see Appendix C for
the version of the SAM scale used in this
study). The Aesthetic Experience Scale for
Music (AES-M) (Sachs et al., 2016)
consisted of 15 questions regarding the
nature and frequency of the music induced
chills experienced by each participant, with
a 7 point scale ranging from (1) never/rarely
to (7) nearly always (see Appendix B for a
copy of the AES-M used in this experiment).
A digital copy of the AES-M was filled out
by each participant and emailed to the
experimenter. The audio files consisted of
15 seconds of white noise, Where You Lead
by Carole King (2008), and The Hanging
Tree by James Newton Howard arranged for
choir by Friedemann Petter (2014). These
audio files were cued on the computer and
were adjusted for approximate consistency
in loudness by ear prior to the experiment.
The white noise audio was used during the
training stage for both conditions. Where
You Lead by Carole King was chosen by the
participants as unlikely to produce chills,
and was used in the control condition, or No
Chills Phase. It is a studio recorded song

with a female singer and an accompanying
band and an upbeat tempo. The Hanging
Tree by James Newton was chosen by
participants as for the experiment condition,
of Chill Phase. It is a choral performance
recorded in a theatre with a male solo
vocalist, a piano accompaniment, and a slow
tempo.
2.3 Procedure
Participants were invited to listen to a
selection of music and vote on the piece
most likely to induce chills, and the piece
least likely to induce chills. The two songs
voted most and least likely to induce chills,
respectively, were selected for the
experiment.
Participants completed the experiment
one at a time, in a quiet room. At the
beginning of the experiment, they were
seated and filled out a consent form that
gave a basic description of the experiment.
As the experiment uses a prospective
paradigm, their roles in performing a time
estimation task was included in the consent
form. They were then given a stopwatch
with the read out covered. The researcher
explained that the participants would be
completing a test phase, during which they
would listen to and attempt to remember a
span of time indicated by white noise. The
participants were not informed that this span
of time consisted of 15 seconds. They were
also informed that they would be asked to
reproduce their estimation of this span of
time after the test phase, by activating the
stop watch and halting it when they believed
the span of time was over. Data was
recorded from the stop watch and the SAM
scale at the end of each condition of the
study.
Both of the conditions, the No Chills
Phase and the Chills Phase, began
immediately following a test stage. In the
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test stage, the participants listening to a
white noise clip for 15 seconds. Each
participant listened to the white noise clip
three times at the beginning of both
conditions.
At the beginning of the No Chills Phase,
the researcher informed participants that
they were to begin the stop watch when cued
to do so by the researcher, as well as to stop
it when they believed an amount of time
equivalent to the time experienced in the test
stage had elapsed. After this was complete,
the researcher asked the participants to rank
the intensity of their experience listening to
the control song on the SAM scale to assess
the intensity of music induced chill response
in participants for each condition of the
study, and control for the potential of a
confounding music induced chill response
during the No Chill Phase.
At the beginning of the Chills Phase, the
researcher asked the participants to start the
stopwatch only when they felt a strong
music induced chill, and to stop the stop
watch when they believed the time shown in
the test stage had elapsed. The participants
once again rated their experience on the
SAM scale to conclude the Chills Phase. At
this point, the participants were more fully
informed about the experiment and the
hypothesis.
3. Results
The level of significance set in this
experiment was 0.05. The average difference
in seconds between the time estimated and
trained time during the No Chills Phase was
1.58 (sd = 0.93). The average difference in
seconds between the time estimated and
trained time during the Chills Phase was
4.01 (sd = 1.70). See Figure 1 for a summary
of the descriptive statistics. These data were
analyzed using an independent samples t-test
and the results were statistically significant

t(9) = 4.8, p = 0.001, suggesting that
participants were less accurate in estimating
time while experiencing music induced
chills.
4. Discussion
The hypothesis that listening to music
that induced chills would have an effect on
time estimation is supported by the findings.
This is in keeping with the findings of DroitVolet & Berthon (2017), which indicated
that experiences of emotional intensity
rating over a 5 on the emotional arousal
component of the SAM scale are sufficiently
intense to distort time perception. All
participants in the present study ranked a
minimum of 6 on the emotional arousal
component of SAM scale during the
experiment phase, with lower accuracy. No
participants rated above 2 during the control
phase, during which accuracy was higher.
One potential explanation could be
attentional division, as the emotional
experience may occupy greater attention and
distract from internal time keeping. Divided
attention has been found to impact the
internal clock in time estimation tasks in
other studies (Block, Hancock & Zakay,
2010). However, other studies have found
that emotional arousal can directly impact
the internal clock, regardless of attention
level, and that this could be a result of a
dopamine release (Cheng, Tipples,
Narayanan & Meck, 2016 as cited in DroitVolet & Berthon, 2017). Considering the
link between music induced chills and
reward response, this seems like a
reasonable explanation (Sachs et al., 2016).
There are some limitations in the current
study. Due to limitations in software to
manipulate audio, tempo could not be
controlled. Utilizing software to more
precisely control for tempo and loudness
variations between audio files would
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Figure 1. Average difference in seconds between time estimated by participants and the
trained time during the Chills and No Chills Phases.
produce consistency that the current study
was not resourced to produce. Also,
measuring galvanic skin response would
have permitted a more reliable reading of
physiological arousal while the timer was
being triggered, rather than an overall
arousal impression provided by the SAM
scale. Finally, access to a larger population
and more time may provide a group of
participants with a baseline even higher on
the AES-M survey, with less individual
variation within the group on susceptibility
and intensity of music induced chills.
The findings of the current study have
implications for understanding the
evolutionary function of music induced
chills. Sachs, Ellis and Schlaug (2017)

posited that human evolution favoured
social-emotional communication, and their
study found a neurological basis for this.
Their findings provide a physiological
reason for music induced chills triggering
reward activation in response to auditory
stimuli that is aesthetic in nature. In other
words, music induced chills present a unique
aesthetic emotional experience, one that is
highly variable between individuals and has
been linked to empathy and pro-social
behavior (Parkinson & Wheatley as cited in
Sachs et al., 2017). Understanding how
music induced chills impacts time
perception has implications for clarifying
how the complex variables of white matter
connectivity, reward sensitivity, and
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dopamine levels may impact an individual’s
engagement with music, their pro-social
function, and their perception of time.
Future research could be done with focus
on the direction of inaccuracy, in terms of
whether time was over or underestimated, in
order to interrogate the role of attention in
the current findings. Other studies report that
divided attention skews perceived time in
one direction for retrospective time, and in
the other for prospective time (Block,
Hancock & Zakay, 2010). Results that are
inconsistent in this may imply explanations
for the current results other than divided
attention. Future research should also be
done to ascertain any difference between
retrospective and prospective paradigms as
research in time estimation has shown
different findings within prospective and
retrospective paradigms (Ziv & Omer,
2011).
White matter connectivity, reward
sensitivity, dopamine levels, pro-social
functioning have all been associated with
music induced chills and could each be
isolated studied in future studies to examine
effect of each in producing variation in
music induced chills and time perception.
The results obtained in the current study
suggest that music induced chills could be
applied as a paradigm in future studies of
emotion and music in laboratory settings, as
music induced chills produce an peak
emotional experience that can be
manipulated as well as mapped with
Diffusion Tensor Imaging (Sachs et al.,
2017).
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Appendix A
Informed consent used in the experiment.
A Psychological Study on Music-Induced ‘Chills’ and Time Estimation
This study is investigating factors that impact time estimation while listening to music. Before
taking part in this study, please read the consent form below. If you understand the statements
and freely consent to participate, please provide a signature and date at the bottom of the page.
Consent Form
This study is designed to understand what effect the experience of music-induced chills has on
an individual’s perception of time. The study is being conducted by Gabriel Waite, a student of
psychology at Camosun College for the partial fulfillment of the requirements for Psychology
110, Experimental Psychology. The study has been approved by the Instructor of the course,
Grace Chan.
Participation in the study typically takes approximately 20 minutes and is strictly anonymous.
All responses will be kept completely confidential, and in no case will responses from individual
participants be identified. Rather, all data will be pooled and then analyzed.
Participation in this study is voluntary, and participants may withdraw from the study at any
time.
Participants begin by completing a questionnaire prior to the experiment. They will then be
asked to participate in two stages of the experiment, with each of the two stages including a
training phase and a test phase. During the training phase, participants will be asked to listen to
white noise for a length of time. During the test phase, participants will be asked to recreate the
length of time experienced during the training phase on a timer, while listening to a song. After
completing each stage of the experiment, the participants will be asked to fill out a third
questionnaire.
If participants have further questions about this study or their rights, they may contact the
principal investigator, Gabriel Waite (gabriel.w.waite@gmail.com), or the course instructor,
Grace Chan at 250-370-3217 (chang@camosun.ca).
If you are 18 years of age or older, understand the statements above, and freely consent to
participate in the study, please sign below:
Signature:
Date:

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Appendix B
Aesthetic Experience Scale in Music (AES-M)
The following Aesthetic Experience Scale in Music (Sachs, Ellis, Schlaug & Loui, 2016) was
used to select participants for the experiment:

1---------------2---------------3--------------4--------------5---------------6---------------7
Never/Rarely
Nearly Always
When listening to music, how often do you . . .
feel absorbed and immersed
completely lose track of time
feel chills down your spine
get goose bumps
feel like you’re somewhere else
feel like your hair is standing on end
feel like crying
feel touched or moved
feel detached from your surroundings
feel a sense of awe and wonder
feel a lump in your throat
feel sensation in the pit of the stomach
feel like your heart is racing
feel like your heart skips a beat
How often do you feel a strong emotional response directly to music?

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Appendix C
Self Assessment Manikin (SAM) Scale
The following Self Assessment Manikin (SAM) Scale (adapted from Bradley & Lang, 1999) was
used in the control and experiment phase:
Please select the figure below that most accurately describes the intensity of your feelings while
listening to the previous song.

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