Transparency, diversity, and equality in music psychology: A meta-science perspective

This talk presents the current state of music psychology from a meta-science perspective, focusing on four key issues: research transparency, barriers to data sharing, diversity among researchers and participants, and gender distribution across authorship roles. These dimensions are analysed using data from discipline-specific journals spanning the past 25 years, complemented by survey results. Overall, the findings suggest that music psychology lags behind psychology more broadly in adopting practices that enhance transparency (such as open sharing of code and data, replications, and preregistrations). The field remains dominated by a Western perspective, and while female researchers are more likely to appear as first authors, they are less often represented as last (senior) authors. The discussion highlights how the community and the gatekeepers might foster greater transparency, diversity, and equality in order to strengthen the discipline.

Tuomas Eerola is a music psychologist and Professor of Music Cognition at Durham University, UK. He is a leading researcher in the field of music cognition, using empirical experiments, theorising, and computational models to study how people engage with and process music. His work encompasses a wide range of topics, including emotions induced by music and perception of musical structure, rhythm, timbre, consonance, and emotional communication through music. He has published more than 160 papers and book chapters and is on the editorial boards of several prominent music psychology journals. His research has been funded by the Academy of Finland, AHRC (UK), ESRC (UK), and EU Horizon 2020. Eerola is the author of the book “Music and Science - Guide to Empirical Research” published by Routledge in 2024.

Refreshments will be available in the foyer from 4.30pm, and there will be a wine reception afterwards.