Back in high school, I played in our school’s marching band. I wasn’t really that into it, it was just an excuse to make music with my friends every weekend during football season. However, during one Friday night game, we were watching the opposing team’s band perform. We had been waiting for our turn to perform on the field right in front of them, and all of a sudden we were overwhelmed by the volume of their sound. Despite being drenched in sweat and ready for the show to be over so we could finish the game and go home, I felt the hair on my arms begin to rise. I was in awe at the climax of their music, and the beauty of the sound underneath the setting Texas sun.
Picture of high school marching band rehearsal
Goosebumps, the phenomenon where small bumps form on our skin as a reaction to certain stimuli are often associated as a visible response to strong emotional reactions. They often apparate when we experience a chilling piece of music, sudden fear, or even intense moments in movies or real life. But why do we get goosebumps? The neurological pathways between our skin cells and our brain are complex, but recent research has shed some light on the unique mechanisms behind these odd chills we experience.
These goosebumps, scientifically referred to as piloerection, are controlled by the autonomic nervous system (commonly referred to as the rest and digest system). This system controls involuntary bodily functions like heart rate, digestion, and body temperature. When you experience a strong and sudden emotional sensation, sensors in the hypothalamus light up (the control board of the autonomic nervous system). This can either be caused by something physical like the cold or something psychological like fear. The hypothalamus directs the tiny muscles at the base of each hair follicle on your skin to contract causing them to stand up right. The brain stem also plays a role in this reaction, as it controls many other automatic functions in the body. The brainstem being involved suggests that the physical experience of goosebumps is a vestigial evolution trait rooted in survival mechanism. Our bodies respond automatically to strong emotions, even if the original purpose is no longer relevant in modern humanity.
A study conducted by Mori and Iwanaga (2021) explored how being emotionally moved in events we are separate from (in fiction and in music) could cause chills and goosebumps. These researchers found that listening to emotionally evocative music could trigger distinct physiological responses. Chills/goosebumps were linked to an increase in electrodermal activity (a measure of electrical conductance in the skin), whereas tears were associated with a calming effect (lowering heart and respiration rates). These push and pull emotional reactions seem to indicate that goosebumps may signal not just heightened emotional arousal but also the relief and resolution of emotional tension that tears and their calming response set up.
Another study by Schoeller et al. (2023) delved deeper into how our brains processed goosebumps. While both tears and chills occur from emotional triggers, chills are linked to the experience of pleasure. This sense of pleasure can be derived from a variety of auditory features including a piece of music’s emotional undertones and prior experience with that music. Furthermore, this study found that certain musical patterns can evoke chills more effectively than others. Usually this can be noticed by large choral progressions in music rather than small soloistic moments. These researchers even made a ranking of pieces of media, both music and movies, that have a higher chance of eliciting goosebumps based on data from participants in their study (Figure 1). As you can see most of these are well known tracks or movies, showing that usually it is prior experience with an artform that can lead to the development of goosebumps.
In conclusion, the neurological origins of goosebumps are a reminder of the intricate connection between our bodies and our emotions. The experience of chills is not just a random occurrence, but rather a complex response that reflects our ability to respond to both threat and beauty with the exact same physical reaction. Understanding this unique phenomenon opens up new perspectives on the ways in which we process art, from lamentation, to fear, to excitement, making goosebumps not only a curious physiological response but a key part in understanding the richness of the human experience.
Figure 1
Bibliography
Mori K, Iwanaga M. 2021. Being emotionally moved is associated with phasic physiological calming during tonic physiological arousal from pleasant tears. International Journal of Psychophysiology. 159:47–59. doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijpsycho.2020.11.006.
Schoeller F, Jain A, Horowitz AH, Yan G, Hu X, Maes P, Salomon R. 2023. ChillsDB: A Gold Standard for Aesthetic Chills Stimuli. Scientific Data. 10(1):307. doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-023-02064-8. [accessed 2024 Jul 22]. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41597-023-02064-8.