Genes and culture shape why music gives some people goosebumps

New research finds that aesthetic chills—the goosebumps or shivers people feel when hearing music or viewing art—are partly heritable (about a third of the variance) but mostly shaped by culture and life experience (around 70%). Chills from music share genetic influences with chills from visual art and poetry, and brain dopamine-reward circuits light up during these moments, though there is no single 'goosebumps gene.' Openness to experience is a modest contributing factor.