Is seeing (musical) believing? The eye versus the ear in emotional responses to music

This study explored whether visual (body movements) or auditory (musical material) information dominates perceived and felt emotions when observing a music performance. In a musical analogue of the McGurk effect and extending work juxtaposing facial expressions and auditory information for sung intervals to an actual musical performance, participants either watched video clips in which musical material and performer's body movements were congruent or they saw incongruent clips that combined musical material with body movements from another piece that differed in emotional valence. Subsequent ratings of perceived and felt emotions showed a significant interaction between music and body movements, indicating that both auditory and visual channels determine the emotional content of the performance for listeners.