Absorption in music: Development of a scale to identify individuals with strong emotional responses to music

Despite the rise in research investigating music and emotion over the last decade, there are no validated measures of individual differences in emotional responses to music. We created the Absorption in Music Scale (AIMS), a 34-item measure of individuals’ ability and willingness to allow music to draw them into an emotional experience. It was evaluated with a sample of 166 participants, and exhibits good psychometric properties. The scale converges well with measures of similar constructs, and shows reliability over time. Importantly, in a test of criterion validity, emotional responses to music were correlated with the AIMS scale but not correlated with measures of empathy or music training.