

Here we can view the pleasure Adele’s songs gives us in terms of the meaning she helps us make. Indeed, seeing acts of moral virtue or beauty have been suggested to provoke feelings of elevation and can touch, move and inspire us. Sadness might just happen to coincide with beauty. They may be pleasurable simply because they are beautiful.

Such learning experiences may have evolved to be pleasurable to encourage their use.Īlternatively, it could be that Adele’s songs aren’t pleasurable because they are sad or nostalgic. This may make us better prepared for when real loss strikes.

We can enhance our empathy, learn to better see things from other people’s perspectives, and try out various responses to sadness. Simulated sadness lets us experiment with and learn from this emotion. Feeling moved can involve chills, goosebumps, a flood of emotions (including romantic ones), a warmth in our chest, and elation.īut why do we feel moved? The American writer James Baldwin got at this when he reflected: “The things that tormented me most were the very things that connected me with all the people who were alive, who had ever been alive.” Similarly, feeling moved can come from us suddenly feeling closer to other people.ĪLSO READ | Adele opens up about weight loss and objectification of her body ‘by other women’ This experience is sometimes called kama muta, a Sanskrit term meaning “moved by love”. Yet, other studies have hinted at a role for prolactin and oxytocin in making sad music feel good.Ī key reason we enjoy sad songs is because they profoundly “move” us.

One study found no evidence that sad music increases prolactin levels. Clicking on Adele’s song may be like clicking on our own metaphorical morphine drip. A post shared by Adele Adele’s pain, or recalling our own, may cause such chemical changes within us.
