No Tingles for You: An Investigation of the Auditory Stimulus Qualities that Elicit AVES (ASMR)

Abstract: Audiovisual elicitation of somatosensation (AVES), also more commonly known as autonomous sensory meridian response (ASMR), is a sensory phenomenon in which particular auditory and visual triggers give rise to a static-like physical sensation — usually originating around the back of the head/neck area — called tingles. Those who are susceptible to this type of response typically experience it in association with positive affect and relaxation. In the present study, 64 participants completed an online-experiment in which they rated their perceived tingle intensity and frequency for twelve 60-second video segments displaying AVES content. Each segment was shown to participants twice in a pseudorandomised order of presentation, once with the original audio and once with edited audio (modified by high- and low-pass filtering to make sounds appear more muffled and distant), resulting in a total of 24 trials per participant. Results indicated not only that participants who categorised themselves as experiencing AVES reported both more frequent and intense tingles than those who had reported not experiencing AVES, but also that unedited videos elicited more tingles in both groups as compared to the audio-edited versions of the same clips. These results support the conclusion that the proximal and crisp nature of popular auditory AVES triggers is a key factor of eliciting the tingle response, and that filtering out certain frequency ranges of the audio thus results in a less effective AVES trigger eliciting both a shorter duration and lower intensity of tingles.