Música, rituales y mundos de sentido. El rol del refuerzo multimodal en la producción de emociones en tres confesiones religiosas en Bogotá

This article explores the role of music, along with other modes of expression, in the production of emotion in three distinct religious rituals in Bogota. The research sought to prove the theoretical concept of "worlds of sense, " within which greater correlation between the contents of different signifying languages not only produces greater emotional intensity but also delineates what behaviors are possible. To accomplish this, interviews and questionnaires were completed, the expressive material of each ritual was analyzed, and the emotional response of nine subjects was measured through physical behavior and electro-encephalographic measurements. The analysis allowed us to conclude that the ritual with less predictability and greater concordance between music and other significant elements is also the ritual in which emotions are expressed with greater intensity and the mandates of the church/mosque are followed more rigorously, while rituals with predictable structures and greater contradiction between the musical and other key elements show less emotional intensity and a lower level of obedience. However, it is impossible to establish a direct causal relationship between the expressive material and the emotional response. Towards the end of the article, other lines of inquiry are proposed to examine the potential of music to influence behavior in the context of multimodal reinforcement experiences.