Ironic enjoyment occurs when people enjoy music despite or because of it being evaluated as bad. Although initial qualitative results suggest that this phenomenon fulfills a variety of self-regulatory functions that are also found in enjoyed music, to date no research has experimentally tested how important these functions are in ironically enjoyed music, in comparison to naturally enjoyed music. In two between-subjects experiments, participants (N = 216 and N = 143) were instructed to think back to a recent occasion in which they listened to a piece of music which they either enjoyed ironically or enjoyed naturally. They then answered questions on the effects this had on them (Studies 1 and 2) and on the subjective qualities of the music (Study 2). The results suggested that ironically enjoyed music had less effect on personal identification and on managing positive or negative moods and was also appreciated less and judged as less novel than naturally enjoyed music. Differences in mood-management functions were associated with lower levels of subjective qualities of ironically enjoyed music, especially appreciation. Novelty was especially related to positive mood enhancement for ironically enjoyed music. Participants mentioned humor as an additional function of ironically enjoyed music listening.

具有讽刺意味的享受发生在人们欣赏音乐时，尽管它被认为是不好的或因为它而被认为是不好的。尽管最初的定性结果表明，这种现象可以满足欣赏音乐中的多种自我调节功能，但迄今为止，还没有任何实验实验性地证明这些功能与自然欣赏音乐相比具有讽刺意味。在两个受试者之间的实验中，参与者（N  = 216和N = 143）被要求回想一下最近的一次场合，在这种情况下，他们听了一段讽刺或自然的音乐。然后，他们就其对他们的影响（研究1和2）以及音乐的主观素质（研究2）回答了问题。结果表明，具有讽刺意味的欣赏音乐对个人识别和管理积极或消极情绪的影响较小，与自然欣赏的音乐相比，欣赏音乐的程度也较低，被判断为新颖程度较低。情绪管理功能的差异与讽刺性欣赏音乐的主观素质水平较低有关，尤其是欣赏。新奇尤其与积极讽刺欣赏音乐的积极情绪增强有关。与会者提到幽默是具有讽刺意味的音乐欣赏的附加功能。