Posted on 06/06/2003 11:13:33 PM PDT by CanadianFella
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - The music you listen to may say more about you than you think, according to new research findings that suggest that our choice in music reflects our personalities.
Do you enjoy blues, jazz, classical and folk music? You may be intelligent, tolerant and politically liberal, researchers report.
Meanwhile, country and religious music fans tend to be cheerful, outgoing, reliable and conventional, while alternative and heavy metal music lovers tend to be physically active, curious risk-takers.
As for rap/hip-hop and dance music fans? They are often outgoing, agreeable people who generally eschew conservative ideals, according to a report in the June issue of the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology (news - web sites).
The findings help explain why people who meet at parties often ask one another about their favorite music or bands, study author Dr. Peter J. Rentfrow told Reuters Health. "It assumes that knowing the answer tells you something about who they are" and whether or not to pursue a relationship, added Rentfrow, a psychologist at the University of Texas at Austin.
The results, noted Rentfrow, could have implications for not just dating and friendships, but for marketing, too. Already advertisers use music to entice certain types of people to buy their products.
"We might come up with typologies comprised of music preferences, socioeconomic status, and age," he told Reuters Health.
Online merchant Amazon.com, among other Web sites, tracks customers' purchasing history and browsing patterns and compares their habits with those of others in order to come up with product recommendations. While the company chose not to disclose data indicating the success of this approach, a spokesperson told Reuters Health that it is "well suited to music, where tastes don't change much over time."
Common sense? Perhaps. On the other hand, said Rentfrow, the study may reveal insights into "the mundane."
"Sometimes the most obvious things are hardest for researchers to see," he told Reuters Health. "That's why there's so little research on music preferences and personality. Because it's something we take for granted."
To look at the relationship between music preferences and personality traits, Rentfrow and Texas colleague Dr. Samuel D. Gosling conducted six studies on over 3,500 students. They examined the students' beliefs about music, their music preferences, self-perceptions and cognitive abilities.
Their findings suggest that personality, self-perception and cognitive ability each play a role in the "formation and maintenance of music preferences," they write.
SOURCE: Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 2003;84:1236-1254.
(That's me)
--Boris
But he does make a point. I've noticed most fans of rap/hiphop are outgoing, agreeable people who enjoy unusual handshakes and are often interested in whether they can steal your hubcaps or have sex with your date. They also believe in sharing their musical tastes with everyone within a 20-mile radius of wherever they are located.
I'll give you credit- your tastes are wide-ranging.
Myself, I like old Styx, Bob Segar, Pink Floyd, Metallica and Placido Domingo...
My life is so confused.... ;)
It has the additional benefit of being entirely false. I like classical and especially baroque music, jazz, old psychotropic headphone rock, and death metal. I absolutely assure the good doctor that I am not politically liberal. Nor am I "gregarious" except inasmuch as it tends to mark potential targets. But I do ask people what music they like. Knowing we have dissimilar tastes means I don't have to waste a lot of time shuffling through disks when I break into their cars...
That's about as good as it gets!
PS. Cool screen name! ;) Though I thought Trashy was cooler- especially with a tactical nuke in his toy box... ;)
Heck yeah- I'm listening to Saint Anger right now!
I adore HARD, electric rock and I loose at least a few brain cells every time I listen to my CD's.
My hubby is a red-neck, corn-fed, hard-line conservative soldier who loves 80's metal and...
FUNK!!! LOL!
(... play that funky mu-sic white boy...)
Better living through chemistry?
while alternative and heavy metal music lovers tend to be physically active, curious risk-takers.
And quite libertarian, but I guess that comes with the risk-taking.
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