This page was translated automatically from Turkish. Read the original

This page is an AI-assisted Turkish summary of the study presented at the 26th World Congress of Psychiatry. The study belongs to the presenting authors; please refer to the original source when citing it.

EV0134

The tragedy paradox: Psychological and neurobiological mechanisms of positive mood regulation through sad music

THE TRAGEDY PARADOX: PSYCHOLOGICAL AND NEUROBIOLOGICAL MECHANISMS OF POSITIVE MOOD MODULATION THROUGH SAD MUSIC

Sad music functions as a homeostatic regulator, activating catharsis and reward pathways within a safe aesthetic context and enabling a negatively valenced stimulus to generate positive affect.

The "tragedy paradox" describes people's tendency to seek out sadness-inducing music for pleasure or emotional relief; sadness, an emotion that signals loss and is avoided in everyday life, offers a "safe" setting for emotional processing when simulated through art. The study aimed to examine how sad music functions as a homeostatic regulator, its psychological rewards, and the neural networks that enable negatively valenced stimuli to generate positive affective states. Findings retrieved from scientific databases using the keywords sadness, music, neuroimaging, music therapy, depression, emotion, aesthetics, pleasure, prolactin, emotions, and brain were integrated; the BRECVEMA framework was used to classify mechanisms of emotion induction, and psychological theories (cognitivism and emotivism) were compared with functional magnetic resonance imaging and positron emission tomography data. The BRECVEMA model identifies eight levels of emotion induction, ranging from brain stem reflexes to aesthetic judgment; the psychological rewards of music-induced sadness include catharsis (emotional release), resolution, and a sense of connection. Neurobiologically, sad music "tricks" the brain into simulating distress without an actual threat, triggering hypothalamic prolactin release to provide compensatory relief; simultaneously, aesthetic beauty activates reward processing in the ventral striatum and nucleus accumbens, while the anterior cingulate cortex and insula map bodily states, restoring physiological and psychological balance. Clinically, patients with major depressive disorder who exhibit anhedonia (inability to experience pleasure) and alexithymia (difficulty identifying emotions) respond more intensely to sad music and use it more than healthy controls to regulate mood and express their internal states; receptive music therapy harnesses these pathways as a safe, nonverbal emotional outlet. In conclusion, sad music is a powerful tool for affect regulation that allows listeners to distance themselves from distressing life circumstances by focusing on aesthetic beauty, and understanding these pathways is important for developing personalized, cost-effective interventions for mood disorders.

All WCP 2026 summaries