Bodily Oddities

Frisson

Also called: Music chills · Aesthetic chills

Goosebumps and a wave of chills down the back at a powerful moment in music, a film, or a speech. About half of people get it regularly. It comes from the brain's reward system reacting to an expectation being met or broken.

Brain Skin and hair Involuntary Involuntary
Community

How common

About 50% of people, regularly Common · 10–50% Higher in people who score high on openness to experience.

Does this happen to you?

These are answers from visitors, not a study.

How it works

Music sets up expectations. You sense where the melody is going and when the beat will land. When an expected moment arrives after a delay, or something unexpected happens, the brain’s reward system releases dopamine13. In a 2011 study, dopamine release in the striatum, a reward centre, peaked at the moment of chills and rose in the seconds before, during anticipation1. The brain rewards itself for predicting well and for being surprised in a safe way.

The chill itself runs through the sympathetic nervous system. Hairs stand up, which is piloerection or goosebumps, and a shiver runs down the back2. Some people also get wet eyes. This is the same reflex the body uses in cold, here fired by emotion.

Common triggers are a sudden loud entry, a voice coming in over instruments, a key change, a soloist climbing above the orchestra, or a reveal in a film. Speeches, poetry, and being moved by a kind act can do it too1.

About 50% of people get frisson regularly1. People who score high on the personality trait “openness to experience” get it more often1. Some people report never having felt it.

History and culture

The word is French for “shiver”. The community at r/frisson collects the clips that reliably cause it, which makes it a good place to test your own response4.

Sources and further material

  1. Encyclopedia Frisson Dopamine findings from Salimpoor et al., 2011, in Nature Neuroscience.
  2. Encyclopedia Goose bumps The hair-raising reflex that frisson triggers.
  3. Encyclopedia Reward system
  4. Community r/frisson People share clips that give them chills.
Skin Reflex

Goosebumps

Tiny muscles at the base of every hair pull the hair upright when you are cold, scared, or moved. In a furry animal this traps warm air or makes it look bigger. In a human it does almost nothing.

Everyone
Brain Involuntary

ASMR

A pleasant tingling that starts on the scalp and moves down the neck and spine, set off by whispering, tapping, soft sounds, or gentle personal attention. Not everyone gets it. A large online community is built around it.

Unclear; estimates 20–70%
Nerves Involuntary

Random shivers

A single brief shudder that runs down the spine or through the whole body when you are not cold. It is very common, and nobody has studied it formally.

Very common, no formal count
Skin Trick

Voluntary piloerection

Giving yourself goosebumps on command, without music, cold, or fear. About 1 in 1,500 people can do it. The muscles involved are not supposed to take orders.

About 1 in 1,500