Summary: Have you ever felt a sudden shiver or goosebumps while listening to a powerful piece of music or reading a moving poem? Scientists call this the “telltale tingle” or “aesthetic chills.” A major new study shows that genetics significantly influence who experiences these intense reactions to art, music, and literature.
Researchers analyzed data from more than 15,500 people and found that roughly 30% of the variation in whether someone experiences chills is linked to family-related factors. A meaningful portion of that familial influence can be tied directly to specific genetic variants, shedding light on why some people are moved “to their core” by the same sensory world that leaves others unaffected.
Key Facts
- Genetic contribution: Common genetic variants explain a significant share of why some people are more prone to aesthetic chills.
- Family influence: Around 30% of differences in emotional sensitivity to art are related to family-linked factors.
- Personality links: Some genetic effects are associated with the personality trait “Openness to Experience,” which relates to broader artistic engagement.
- Domain specificity: Certain biological influences appear to be specific to particular art forms, so musical chills can arise from partly different mechanisms than chills from visual art or poetry.
- Neural overlap: Aesthetic chills activate brain systems that resemble those responding to biologically meaningful stimuli, indicating art affects us at a fundamental physiological level.
Source: Max Planck Institute
Why do some people feel chills when they encounter art while others do not?
New research led by Giacomo Bignardi and colleagues at the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, published in PLOS Genetics, indicates that part of the explanation lies in our DNA. The team used data from Lifelines, a large multi-generational cohort study in the northern Netherlands, to examine emotional reactions to cultural experiences among thousands of genotyped participants.
Historical figures have noted this phenomenon: Charles Darwin described how choral music in King’s College Chapel gave him such pleasure that “his backbone would sometimes shiver,” while Vladimir Nabokov called a similar sensation the “telltale tingle” essential to appreciating literary genius. Modern neuroscience now connects those subjective reports to measurable physiological and neural responses.
Aesthetic chills
Aesthetic chills are brief peak experiences often accompanied by goosebumps or shivers. Because they are distinct, observable reactions that pair subjective emotion with a bodily response, researchers use chills as a model to study how humans respond to art. Previous studies show that chills from music and poetry engage brain systems that also respond to biologically meaningful stimuli and that individual differences in chills relate to measurable variation in brain function and physiology.
Building on that foundation, the recent study explored whether common DNA variation explains why some people are especially likely to experience chills from music, poetry, or visual art.
Family-linked factors and genetic findings
The analysis indicates that about 30% of the variation in experiencing chills is explained by family-related factors. Approximately one-quarter of that familial effect is attributable to variation in common single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), confirming a clear genetic contribution to emotional sensitivity to art.
Some genetic influences were shared across art forms—music, poetry, and visual art—and linked to broader personality traits such as openness to experience and general artistic engagement. At the same time, other genetic effects were specific to particular domains, implying that different biological mechanisms shape how people respond to music versus visual art or poetry.
“These findings suggest genetics can help explain why people sometimes experience the same sensory world so differently,” Bignardi says. He and his colleagues emphasize that much work remains to map how genetic predispositions interact with environmental exposure and social influences to shape aesthetic reactions.
By demonstrating a measurable genetic contribution to susceptibility to chills from visual art, poetry, and music, the study opens a pathway for further investigation into the biological foundations of emotional experience and why art impacts some people more intensely than others.
Key Questions Answered:
A: It’s a combination of personality, upbringing, and genetics. About one-third of the tendency to experience chills is linked to family-related factors, and a substantial portion of that is explained by common genetic variation. Family environment and exposure also play important roles.
A: Yes. The study found both shared and domain-specific genetic influences. Some genes appear to increase general sensitivity to art, while others influence reactions to particular art forms like poetry, music, or visual art.
A: Not necessarily intelligence. Chills are more closely associated with personality traits—especially Openness to Experience—which relates to emotional sensitivity and deep engagement with sensory and cultural environments.
Editorial Notes:
- This article was edited by a Neuroscience News editor.
- The original journal paper was reviewed in full by our editorial team.
- Additional context and clarifications were added by staff to help readers understand the research and its implications.
About this genetics and aesthetic chills research news
Author: Anniek Corporaal
Source: Max Planck Institute
Contact: Anniek Corporaal – Max Planck Institute
Image: The image is credited to Neuroscience News
Original Research: Open access.
Study: “Genetic underpinnings of chills from art and music” by Giacomo Bignardi, Danielle Admiraal, Else Eising, and Simon E. Fisher. PLOS Genetics
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pgen.1012002
Abstract
Genetic underpinnings of chills from art and music
Art can evoke intense emotional responses. This study examines genetic contributions to chills—distinct bodily reactions that signal such responses—using self-reports from a genotyped sample of thousands of partly related individuals in the Netherlands (n = 15,606).
Applying genomic relationships based on common single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) data, the researchers estimate that up to 29% of variation in proneness to aesthetic (visual art and poetry) and music chills can be attributed to familial relatedness, with roughly one-quarter of that familial effect explained by common SNP variation.
The analysis also reveals a moderate genetic correlation (about 0.58) between aesthetic and music chills, indicating shared genetic variation influences susceptibility to strong emotional responses across different art forms. Additionally, a polygenic index for Openness to Experience (n = 220,015) is associated with susceptibility to both aesthetic and music chills.
Overall, the results show that additive genetic variation and familial relatedness beyond common SNPs contribute to proneness to chills from artistic, poetic, and musical expressions. These findings point to promising directions for further study of how genetics and intergenerational transmission shape human attitudes toward art.