Kirk Olsen
Biographic Data
| ID | 6109696 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Kirk Olsen |
| GIVEN NAMES | Kirk |
| FAMILY NAME | Olsen |
| SIGNATURE | OLSEN K |
| AFFILIATIONS | Macquarie University |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-8238-8816 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 16 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 4 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 16 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2018 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 1 |
Attentional effects on affect and prefrontal activation during high-intensity exercise with music
Music is widely used in exercise as a dissociative strategy to divert attention from sensations of fatigue. During high-intensity exercise, however, physiological perceptions may dominate attention, making it difficult for external stimuli like music to capture focus. Two experiments examined the impact of directing attention to music or body movements while running with asynchronous music. In Experiment 1, a within-subjects 2 (intensity: 70% or …
Cognitive Processes in the Cultural Classification of Music
This research investigated the cognitive processes involved in classifying the cultural origin of music and how various musical features influence these processes. One hundred White-European (Western) listeners from the United Kingdom, the United States, New Zealand, and Australia listened to 48 ten-second music excerpts, comprising Western classical and Chinese traditional bowed-string music conveying happiness, sadness, calmness, and agitation.…
Understanding the attraction to music containing violent themes
Fans of music containing violent themes can experience positive affective, social, and well-being benefits from engagement with music. However, there is a gap in understanding why people are attracted to such music in the first place, as violently themed music is often considered offensive, disturbing, and repulsive by many nonfans. Recent research has found that morbid curiosity, a fascination with death and threatening situations and phenomena,…
The effects of cultural source sensitivity on music appreciation
Music appreciation is a complex process that involves responses to surface-level structure, personal associations, and source sensitivity. Source sensitivity is an understanding of the context in which a musical artifact was created. This article joins a growing body of literature in which program notes are manipulated to highlight the importance of source sensitivity, shifting the focus onto cultural context. Two hundred eighty-four participants…
Passion, music, and psychological well-being
Passionate music engagement is a defining feature of music fans worldwide. Although benefits to psychosocial well-being are often experienced by fans of music, some fans experience maladaptive outcomes from their music engagement. The Dualistic Model of Passion proposes that two types of passion—harmonious and obsessive—are associated with positive and negative outcomes of passionate engagement, respectively. This model has been employed in resea…
Violent and prosocial music
Although there is a large research base on the psychological impacts of violent and prosocial visual media, there is little research addressing the impacts of violent and prosocial music, and which facets of the music have the greatest impact. Four experiments tested the impact of lyrics and/or musical tone on aggressive and prosocial behavior, and on underlying psychological processes, using purpose‐built songs to avoid the effect of music‐relat…
Openness to World Music Predicts Adaptation to a New Culture among Student Sojourners
Student sojourners temporarily live in a foreign country to pursue higher education. Research has shown that student sojourners’ openness to new experience and cultural values predict their adaptation to the host culture. However, it is unclear whether music – a major medium of cultural communication – also plays a role in adaptation to a host culture. This study examined whether student sojourners’ world music open-earedness (a willingness to ex…
Psychosocial risks and benefits of exposure to heavy metal music with aggressive themes
Concerns have been raised that prolonged exposure to heavy metal music with aggressive themes can increase the risk of aggression, anger, antisocial behaviour, substance use, suicidal ideation, anxiety and depression in community and psychiatric populations. Although research often relies on correlational evidence for which causal inferences are not possible, it is often claimed that music with aggressive themes can cause psychological and behavi…
The Perceptual and Emotional Consequences of Articulation in Music
Two experiments investigated perceptual and emotional consequences of note articulation in music by examining the degree to which participants perceived notes to be separated from each other in a musical phrase. Seven-note piano melodies were synthesized with staccato notes (short decay) or legato notes (gradual/sustained decay). Experiment 1 (n = 64) addressed the impact of articulation on perceived melodic cohesion and perceived emotion express…
Rich Intercultural Music Engagement Enhances Cultural Understanding
Rich intercultural music engagement (RIME) is an embodied form of engagement whereby individuals immerse themselves in foreign musical practice, for example, by learning a traditional instrument from that culture. The present investigation evaluated whether RIME with Chinese or Middle Eastern music can nurture intercultural understanding. White Australian participants were randomly assigned to one of two plucked-string groups: Chinese pipa ( n = …
Music, Pleasure, and Meaning
Many people listen to music that conveys challenging emotions such as sadness and anger, despite the commonly assumed purpose of media being to elicit pleasure. We propose that eudaimonic motivation, the desire to engage with aesthetic experiences to be challenged and facilitate meaningful experiences, can explain why people listen to music containing such emotions. However, it is unknown whether music containing violent themes can facilitate suc…
Does music help regulate depressive symptoms for fans of violently themed music
Fans of extreme metal and rap music with violent themes, hereafter termed “violently themed music,” predominantly experience positive emotional and psychosocial outcomes in response to this music. However, negative emotional responses to preferred music are reported to a greater extent by such fans than by fans of non-violently themed music. We investigated negative emotional responses to violently themed music among fans by assessing their exper…
Fans of Violent Music
Extreme metal and rap music with violent themes are sometimes blamed for eliciting antisocial behaviours, but growing evidence suggests that music with violent themes can have positive emotional, cognitive, and social consequences for fans. We addressed this apparent paradox by comparing how fans of violent and non-violent music respond emotionally to music. We also characterised the psychosocial functions of music for fans of violent and non-vio…
An investigation of empathy in male and female fans of aggressive music
Concerns have been raised that persistent exposure to violent media can lead to negative outcomes such as reduced empathy for the plight of others. The present study investigated whether fans of aggressive heavy or death metal music show reduced empathic reactions to aggression, relative to fans of non-aggressive music. 108 participants who self-identified as fans of heavy or death metal, classical or jazz music ( n=36 per group) were presented w…
Interference in memory for pitch-only and rhythm-only sequences
In human memory, the ability to recognize a previously encountered stimulus often undergoes cumulative interference when the number of intervening items between its first and second presentation increases. Although this is a common effect in many domains, melodies composed in tuning systems familiar to participants (e.g., Western tonal music) do not seem to suffer such cumulative decrements in recognition performance. Interestingly, melodies in u…
Who enjoys listening to violent music and why
Interference in memory for pitch-only and rhythm-only sequences
In human memory, the ability to recognize a previously encountered stimulus often undergoes cumulative interference when the number of intervening items between its first and second presentation increases. Although this is a common effect in many domains, melodies composed in tuning systems familiar to participants (e.g., Western tonal music) do not seem to suffer such cumulative decrements in recognition performance. Interestingly, melodies in u…
Who enjoys listening to violent music and why
An investigation of empathy in male and female fans of aggressive music
Concerns have been raised that persistent exposure to violent media can lead to negative outcomes such as reduced empathy for the plight of others. The present study investigated whether fans of aggressive heavy or death metal music show reduced empathic reactions to aggression, relative to fans of non-aggressive music. 108 participants who self-identified as fans of heavy or death metal, classical or jazz music ( n=36 per group) were presented w…
Does music help regulate depressive symptoms for fans of violently themed music
Fans of extreme metal and rap music with violent themes, hereafter termed “violently themed music,” predominantly experience positive emotional and psychosocial outcomes in response to this music. However, negative emotional responses to preferred music are reported to a greater extent by such fans than by fans of non-violently themed music. We investigated negative emotional responses to violently themed music among fans by assessing their exper…
Fans of Violent Music
Extreme metal and rap music with violent themes are sometimes blamed for eliciting antisocial behaviours, but growing evidence suggests that music with violent themes can have positive emotional, cognitive, and social consequences for fans. We addressed this apparent paradox by comparing how fans of violent and non-violent music respond emotionally to music. We also characterised the psychosocial functions of music for fans of violent and non-vio…
Openness to World Music Predicts Adaptation to a New Culture among Student Sojourners
Student sojourners temporarily live in a foreign country to pursue higher education. Research has shown that student sojourners’ openness to new experience and cultural values predict their adaptation to the host culture. However, it is unclear whether music – a major medium of cultural communication – also plays a role in adaptation to a host culture. This study examined whether student sojourners’ world music open-earedness (a willingness to ex…
Psychosocial risks and benefits of exposure to heavy metal music with aggressive themes
Concerns have been raised that prolonged exposure to heavy metal music with aggressive themes can increase the risk of aggression, anger, antisocial behaviour, substance use, suicidal ideation, anxiety and depression in community and psychiatric populations. Although research often relies on correlational evidence for which causal inferences are not possible, it is often claimed that music with aggressive themes can cause psychological and behavi…
The Perceptual and Emotional Consequences of Articulation in Music
Two experiments investigated perceptual and emotional consequences of note articulation in music by examining the degree to which participants perceived notes to be separated from each other in a musical phrase. Seven-note piano melodies were synthesized with staccato notes (short decay) or legato notes (gradual/sustained decay). Experiment 1 (n = 64) addressed the impact of articulation on perceived melodic cohesion and perceived emotion express…
Rich Intercultural Music Engagement Enhances Cultural Understanding
Rich intercultural music engagement (RIME) is an embodied form of engagement whereby individuals immerse themselves in foreign musical practice, for example, by learning a traditional instrument from that culture. The present investigation evaluated whether RIME with Chinese or Middle Eastern music can nurture intercultural understanding. White Australian participants were randomly assigned to one of two plucked-string groups: Chinese pipa ( n = …
Music, Pleasure, and Meaning
Many people listen to music that conveys challenging emotions such as sadness and anger, despite the commonly assumed purpose of media being to elicit pleasure. We propose that eudaimonic motivation, the desire to engage with aesthetic experiences to be challenged and facilitate meaningful experiences, can explain why people listen to music containing such emotions. However, it is unknown whether music containing violent themes can facilitate suc…
The effects of cultural source sensitivity on music appreciation
Music appreciation is a complex process that involves responses to surface-level structure, personal associations, and source sensitivity. Source sensitivity is an understanding of the context in which a musical artifact was created. This article joins a growing body of literature in which program notes are manipulated to highlight the importance of source sensitivity, shifting the focus onto cultural context. Two hundred eighty-four participants…
Passion, music, and psychological well-being
Passionate music engagement is a defining feature of music fans worldwide. Although benefits to psychosocial well-being are often experienced by fans of music, some fans experience maladaptive outcomes from their music engagement. The Dualistic Model of Passion proposes that two types of passion—harmonious and obsessive—are associated with positive and negative outcomes of passionate engagement, respectively. This model has been employed in resea…
Violent and prosocial music
Although there is a large research base on the psychological impacts of violent and prosocial visual media, there is little research addressing the impacts of violent and prosocial music, and which facets of the music have the greatest impact. Four experiments tested the impact of lyrics and/or musical tone on aggressive and prosocial behavior, and on underlying psychological processes, using purpose‐built songs to avoid the effect of music‐relat…
Understanding the attraction to music containing violent themes
Fans of music containing violent themes can experience positive affective, social, and well-being benefits from engagement with music. However, there is a gap in understanding why people are attracted to such music in the first place, as violently themed music is often considered offensive, disturbing, and repulsive by many nonfans. Recent research has found that morbid curiosity, a fascination with death and threatening situations and phenomena,…
Attentional effects on affect and prefrontal activation during high-intensity exercise with music
Music is widely used in exercise as a dissociative strategy to divert attention from sensations of fatigue. During high-intensity exercise, however, physiological perceptions may dominate attention, making it difficult for external stimuli like music to capture focus. Two experiments examined the impact of directing attention to music or body movements while running with asynchronous music. In Experiment 1, a within-subjects 2 (intensity: 70% or …
Cognitive Processes in the Cultural Classification of Music
This research investigated the cognitive processes involved in classifying the cultural origin of music and how various musical features influence these processes. One hundred White-European (Western) listeners from the United Kingdom, the United States, New Zealand, and Australia listened to 48 ten-second music excerpts, comprising Western classical and Chinese traditional bowed-string music conveying happiness, sadness, calmness, and agitation.…
Psychology (14 works) · Social Psychology (13 works) · Neuroscience and Music Perception (12 works) · Diverse Music Education Insights (10 works) · Musical (8 works) · Art (7 works) · Anger (4 works) · Media Influence and Health (4 works) · Music and Audio Processing (4 works) · Music and emotion (4 works)