A new study has revealed that our tendency to get shivers down our spines when we hear a beautiful song or look at a striking painting is partially tied to our DNA. The findings suggest that there is a common biological basis for the intense physical and emotional reactions people have to different forms of art. The study was published in the journal PLOS Genetics.
For centuries, writers and philosophers have described the intense physical reactions that art produces. Charles Darwin wrote of how he trembled with joy while listening to the choir sing in a magnificent chapel. Other thinkers describe the obvious tingling that marks the work of genius. These physical reactions are commonly known as aesthetic chills.
Chills in this context refer to sudden waves of strong emotions that often cause physical changes. People describe these moments as shivers down their spines or sudden goosebumps. Biologically speaking, this response involves the brain’s reward centers. This brain activation is similar to the process seen when humans encounter basic biological needs such as food, but here it is triggered by abstract cultural creation.
Experiencing chills provides a clear and measurable way to study human emotional responses. They connect subjective pleasure to automatic physical responses. Not everyone experiences these sensations in the same way or with the same intensity.
Previous studies in families and twins suggest that the tendency to get chills from art is partially inherited. Studies comparing identical and dizygotic twins have shown that there is a genetic component to these reactions. However, those early projects relied on mathematical models of familial inheritance rather than actual molecular data.
Relying purely on genealogy leaves questions about the exact biological mechanisms actually at work. Families share their childhood environment as well as their genes. This shared environment can make it difficult to determine whether similarities are due to biological inheritance or growing up in the same household.
Twin designs also depend on assumptions about how families share their environments. These models generally assume that identical twins experience the same level of environmental similarity as fraternal twins. If this assumption is incorrect, the model may overestimate the role of genetics.
To directly investigate the biological causes of these reactions, the research team set out to analyze actual mutations in human DNA. The researchers wanted to see if certain genetic markers could explain why some people are more susceptible to these severe reactions. They also aimed to determine whether the genetic roots of music-induced chills overlap with those caused by visual art and poetry.
Giacomo Binardi, a researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, led the study. He collaborated with colleagues Daniel Admiral, Else Ising and Simon E. Fisher. The research team aimed to bridge the gap between subjective cultural experience and modern genomic science.
The researchers used data from a large health and genetics project in the Netherlands called Lifelines. The project collects medical, genetic, and lifestyle information from multiple generations of families living in the northern region of the country. For this particular analysis, the team collected self-reported survey data from more than 15,000 adult participants.
Participants answered questions about their emotional responses to different types of media. They rated how often they felt waves of excitement or chills when reading poetry, looking at visual art, or listening to music. The researchers then combined these survey responses with genetic information extracted from participants’ biological samples.
To look for genetic patterns, the researchers looked at common variations in the participants’ genetic code. These variations are small differences in the components of DNA that occur naturally across populations. By comparing the participants’ complete genetic profiles, the researchers were able to measure how similar the two people in the study were genetically.
The research team used statistical methods to compare genetic and trait similarities. If people who share more DNA mutations share a similar tendency to experience art-induced chills, that would indicate a clear genetic link with the trait. They applied this method to a mix of close family members, distant relatives, and completely unrelated individuals.
Researchers estimate that up to 29% of the variation in how often people experience chills is related to family relationships. When we looked specifically at common DNA mutations tracked by standard genetic tests, we found that these specific markers accounted for about a quarter of that familial effect. This shows that measurable differences in DNA are directly related to how strongly people react to art.
The scientists noted that the specific DNA markers they tracked only explained part of the overall genetic influence seen within families. This gap is common in genetic research and occurs for a variety of reasons. Laboratory equipment used to scan DNA primarily detects common genetic differences and may miss rare mutations that can affect subjective traits.
Next, the research team investigated whether the genetic factors associated with chills in music were the same as those associated with chills in visual arts and poetry. They calculated a metric called genetic correlation to examine the extent to which the biological bases of these traits overlap. The analysis revealed a moderate overlap between the two categories.
This moderate correlation means that many of the genetic variations associated with sensitivity to painting and written art also increase the likelihood of a strong response to music. This correlation is not absolute and indicates that some genetic factors are unique to certain art forms. The biological mechanisms that make someone respond strongly to a painting are related to, but distinct from, the mechanisms that make someone tremble when listening to a symphony.
The researchers also investigated whether the genetic tendency to feel chills is part of a broader psychological framework. They turned to the concept of openness to experience. This is an aspect of the personality that includes a very active imagination and a general interest in art. They took data from a completely separate study of more than 200,000 people and created a genetic index of this personality trait.
The research team applied this genetic indicator to current study participants in the Netherlands. They found that individuals with genetic profiles associated with high openness were more likely to report experiencing chills from music, art, and poetry. Although genetic indices accounted for only a small portion of the total variation, the association was clear.
These findings suggest that general biological predispositions to particular personality types shape our moment-to-moment physical responses to cultural products. The tendency to seek out and appreciate art appears to share biological pathways and the physical thrill of experiencing it. Our personality and physical reflexes are intertwined down to the cellular level.
To ensure the model’s accuracy, the team checked the phenomenon of people choosing partners with similar characteristics. If people who get chills from art tend to form relationships with each other, mathematical models can be skewed to make certain traits seem more tightly controlled by genetics than they really are. When we looked at data from more than 3,000 lovers in the biobank, we found only a very weak correlation. This gave them confidence that their genetic estimates were not highly biased.
This study is based entirely on self-reported survey responses, which is subject to error. People may interpret questions about their emotions differently from day to day or year to year. This subjective variation can cause mathematical models to underestimate the true extent of genetic influence.
Another limitation is that the genetic analysis focused only on participants of European descent. Genetic mutations vary widely among the world’s populations, and cultural attitudes toward music and the arts also vary widely. Future studies should include more diverse demographics to see if these biological patterns hold true across different cultures.
Current data cannot reveal exactly how mutations in DNA change a person’s physical biology to cause chills. The physical mechanism of goosebumps, which is the contraction of small muscles near the hair follicle, is often accompanied by emotional chills, but it can also occur independently. Further research is needed to trace the pathway from genetic code to brain activity and skin’s physical responses.
Future studies may utilize larger genetic databases and more sophisticated physiological measurements. Comparing these physical responses across different age groups and geographic regions may reveal how human biology naturally changes over time. So far, this study offers a new way to think about why our favorite songs and paintings are so physically moving.
The study, “The Genetic Basis of Chills through Art and Music,” was authored by Giacomo Binardi, Daniel Admiral, Else Ising, and Simon E. Fisher.
