Global Study Reveals Emotional Signatures of National Anthems Across Cultures and Continents

Ten key theses in English

Джерело: phys.org

1. Anthems as cultural mirrors – National anthems are not just ceremonial music; they encode cultural, historical, and geographic characteristics of nations.
2. Scope of the study – Researchers analyzed 176 national anthems using machine learning and music information retrieval (MIR) techniques.
3. Analytical method – Models originally trained to evaluate film music were repurposed to predict emotional qualities—such as happiness, sadness, anger, fear, and tenderness—of each anthem.
4. Geographic patterns – Countries closer to the equator tended to have more energetic and arousing anthems, while those farther away leaned toward sadder tones.
5. Continental differences – Anthems from the Americas showed higher tension and less positivity compared to anthems from Europe, Asia, Africa, or Oceania.
6. Cultural correlations – Nations with hierarchical (high power distance) cultures often had more energetic, forceful anthems, while individualistic societies produced anthems that were more tender and less tense.
7. Emotional diversity – Mapping revealed wide variations in basic emotions (happiness, sadness, anger, fear, tenderness) both between continents and within them.
8. Implications for national identity – Emotional profiles of anthems provide new insights into how collective identities are expressed musically across the world.
9. Methodological significance – The study highlights the power of computational tools in decoding the symbolic and emotional dimensions of music on a global scale. 10.Future research – Next steps may include examining how people emotionally experience their own national anthem and how the historical period of composition shapes an anthem’s emotional profile.