Creativity drives performer-listener emotional and physiological alignment in live music improvisation

Music is a fundamental medium for human communication, yet it remains unclear whether it enables genuine alignment of internally felt emotions beyond mere emotion perception. Creative expression may be central to this process: when performers improvise with creative intent, they engage in self-expression that could draw listeners into closer emotional and physiological resonance. Here, dual-electrocardiography was recorded across 37 performer-listener dyads while performers generated live improvisations under conventional, unconventional, or creative instructions. We show that creative improvisation enhances dyadic emotional alignment for both valence and arousal, and increases cardiac synchronization. Performer-listener alignment was strongest when performers felt and expressed emotions were themselves aligned, and when listeners showed a gradual arousal buildup. Creativity also elicited higher sublimity, lower unease and vitality, and greater diversity of selected emotional labels. These findings establish creativity as a mechanism through which music achieves one of its most celebrated functions: the creation of shared human experience.