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It’s Time for Resting Pitch Face: How Musical Key and Tempo Influence Neutral Face Appraisals.

Poster Session F - Tuesday, March 10, 2026, 8:00 – 10:00 am PDT, Fairview/Kitsilano Ballroom

Eddie Broad¹ (), Nick DeMille¹, Isabel Stewart¹, Kierstin Roy¹, Vincent Flegeance¹, Carole Scherling¹; ¹Belmont University, Nashville, TN

Music enhances facial-affect perceptions (Logeswaran, 2009). The present study explores how musical key and tempo influences neutral-face judgements. Sixty undergraduates (mostly female) were randomly assigned to an instrumental-music condition: major/fast, major/slow, minor/fast, and minor/slow. They completed 2 tasks, during which they viewed neutral faces (Chicago Face Database), indicating perceived valence through a 5-point Likert-scale (very negative to very positive). This task was first completed while listening to background white noise (control) and subsequently listening to their assigned musical condition. Valence measures and task reaction time (rxnt) were measured. Between-samples non-parametric Kruskal-Wallis tests were performed. Valence ratings were not influenced by key nor tempo (p>0.05). There were effects on rxnt, measured in seconds. Concerning key, a main effect revealed quicker rxnt for minor (2.57) compared to control (3.38), p=0.015. Regarding tempo, main effects uncovered quicker rxnt for all musical conditions (fast:2.73; slow:2.41), compared to control, p=0.019. Further investigations reveal an interaction (p=0.0002) with faster rating responses for congruent musical pairings (minor/slow:2.17 and major/fast:2.62) compared to the control. This musical quickening was not maintained for incongruent pairings (minor/fast and major/slow). The current valence findings do not align with prior research, which may be explained by methodological differences, with our instrumental music being continuously played in the background (vs. music prior to ratings). Meanwhile, faster rxnt align with increased cognitive arousal associated with background musical inductions (Prasad, 2013; Young-Sung, 2022). Pairing congruence of musical features may yield higher cognitive availability (faster rxnt), compared to non-congruent pairings, whose features may occupy cognitive reserves.

Topic Area: EMOTION & SOCIAL: Person perception