The Max Planck Institute for Empirical Aesthetics (MPIEA) investigates why and how people create, perform, experience, and evaluate art. While the institute’s primary focus is music, it also explores other artistic domains such as dance and film. Its research centers on the psychological, biological, and genetic processes underlying the production and perception of art. To do so, the institute combines methods from psychology and neuroscience with the expertise, methodologies, and theories of musicology, art studies, anthropology, and sociology.