Social representation of “music” in young adults: a cross-cultural study

Vinaya Manchaiah, Fei Zhao, Stephen Widén, Jasmin Auzenne, Eldré W. Beukes, Tayebeh Ahmadi, David Tomé, Deepthi Mahadeva, Rajalakshmi Krishna, Per Germundsson

This study was aimed to explore perceptions of and reactions to music in young adults (18-25 years) using the theory of social representations (TSR). The study used a cross-sectional survey design and included participants from India, Iran, Portugal, USA and UK. Data were analysed using various qualitative and quantitative methods. The study sample included 534 young adults. The Chi-square analysis showed significant differences between the countries regarding the informants' perception of music. The most positive connotations about music were found in the responses obtained from Iranian participants (82.2%), followed by Portuguese participants (80.6%), while the most negative connotations about music were found in the responses obtained from Indian participants (18.2%), followed by Iranian participants (7.3%). The participants' responses fell into 19 main categories based on their meaning; however, not all categories were found in all five countries. The co-occurrence analysis results generally indicate that the category "positive emotions or actions" was the most frequent category occurring in all five countries. The results indicate that music is generally considered to bring positive emotions for people within these societies, although a small percentage of responses indicate some negative consequences of music.