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Frissons on demand

Psychology & Neuroscience Asked on January 31, 2021

Have you ever listened to music and it gives you “chills?” This response is called a “frisson,” a french word meaning “to shiver.”

When I want to access certain emotional and inspirationally charged visualisations I get frissons that I can create or stop at will. I practice this exercise when I need a quick energy/mood boost. It feels very calming and relaxing, as if pure wave-like energy is ebbing and flowing – pulsating throughout my body.

$(1)$ What percentage of people experience frissons?

$(2) $ What percentage of people can create frissons at will?

Wikipedia says about this topic:

Frisson (French for ‘shiver’) is a sensation somewhat like shivering, usually caused by stimuli other than cold. It is typically expressed as an overwhelming emotional response combined with piloerection (goosebumps). Stimuli that produce a response are specific to the individual.
Frisson is of short duration, usually no more than 4–5 seconds, usually pleasurable.[1] Typical stimuli include loud passages of music and passages that violate some level of musical expectation.[2]

Found this article about “voluntary piloerection:”

https://www.inverse.com/article/42005-goosebumps-control-voluntary-piloerection

One Answer

Apparently voluntary piloerection is extremely rare amongst the popoluation. Only about 35 people out of about 7.6 billion people in the world have been confirmed to exhibit voluntary piloerection in the scientific literature.

For piloerection in general, only 2/3 of the population exhibit this trait.

As is stated in the abstract of the cited source below (which discusses voluntarily controlled piloerection), the ability correlates with personality traits of openness to new experiences, and highly emotionally developed parts of the brain:

"Compared to previously collected samples, participants reported significantly higher openness to experience, and absorption in response to aesthetic situations. These preliminary findings suggest that this rare and unusual physiological ability has strong emotional and personality correlates."

https://peerj.com/preprints/26594/

Answered by Jack Zimmerman on January 31, 2021

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