Daydreams and trait affect: The role of the listener's state of mind in the emotional response to music

- We present a moderated mediation model to assess the mechanisms that underlie musical experience.
- The valence of daydreams plays a mediating role in musical experience.
- Individual differences in affect moderate the liking of sad vs. happy music.

Music creates room for the mind to wander, mental time travel, and departures into more fantastical worlds. We examined the mediating role of daydreams and the moderating function of personality differences for the emotional response to music by using a moderated mediation approach. The results showed that the valence of daydreams played a mediating role in the reaction to the musical experience: happy music was related to more positive daydreams, which were associated with greater relaxation with the happy music and to greater liking of the happy music. Furthermore, negative affect (trait) moderated the direct effect of sad vs. happy music on the liking of the music: individuals with high scores on negative affect preferred sad music. The results are discussed with regard to the interplay of general and personality-specific processes as it is relevant to better understand the effects music can have on the listeners.