Repeated Exposure Decreases Aesthetic Chills Likelihood but Increases Intensity

Abstract

Aesthetic chills are a peak emotional response to affectively charged stimuli such as music, films, or speech. This study investigates the impact of repeated exposure on the frequency and intensity of aesthetic chills. Through a longitudinal approach, we quantified changes in chill likelihood, intensity, and pleasure across multiple exposures, focusing on audio stimuli. Participants (n = 58) were randomly exposed to 6 chill-evoking stimuli pre-validated on the population of interest, in a counterbalanced order. Our findings revealed a significant decrease in the likelihood of experiencing chills with repeated exposure, suggesting habituation to chills itself or potential fatigue in response to aesthetic stimuli. The study also identified distinct demographic and psychophysiological response patterns across different participant groups, indicating variability in chill responses. These results provide insights into the dynamic nature of aesthetic experiences and their underlying neural mechanisms, with implications for understanding emotional and reward processing in psychophysiology.