Music Preferences Linked to Personality: Study

Yahoo ^ | June 7th 2003 | Natalie Engler

[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.

[gcruse]

Blue Cheer anyone? I actually saw these doofs live. Am I dating myself or what?

I loved their slightly :) modified version of Summertime Blues.
Remember Coming Down by the United States of America?

[gcruse]

Never heard of Ronnie Dove. What did he do?
Also a major Israel supporter and Wagnerite.
Hayatooooooooooooooooowahhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!

[WestTexasWend]

LOL...and in his spare time he advises the Dixie Chicks.

[Allegra]

What about people who like Latino (you know...that brassy-accordion stuff) music blasted from a car stereo for everyone within a 10 mile radius to hear at 3 a.m.? I didn't see their personality type categorized.

[Molly Pitcher]

LOL! ohio, my musical tastes and political leanings match yours exactly. Well, that's 2 of us. Maybe we form our own (small) stereotypical crowd??!! OH! We can add my husband. That's 3 of us.

[savedbygrace]

Before you said it was you, I was going to say it indicates a potential serial murderer.

But now that I know it's you, I'd say it shows a self-assured individualist who knows where he's going.

[ohioWfan]

OH! We can add my husband. That's 3 of us.

Well, then, we can add my husband, and three of our children (the fourth has underdeveloped musical tastes at this point!)

That makes 6!

[Billy_bob_bob]

I used to be a total Mike Oldfield fanatic, but that ended when "Guilty" was released. Still, his first three albums ("Tubular Bells", "Hergest Ridge" and "Ommadawn") are quite good, with Ommadawn IMHO being the best. His work since then just doesn't do it for me like his early work.

[Old Professer]

Anti-social, rabid, leash-breaking maddog.

[Fawnn]

Never heard of Ronnie Dove. What did he do?

Ronnie Dove's music and voice could probably best be described as that cose to Bobby Vinton's style. (Ronnie Dove tends to do this falsetto thing at the end of his songs, but I forgave him for that long ago.) In the 1960s, he had enough hits to put out 2 Greatest Hits albums. His songs include "When Liking Turns to Lovin'," "Just a Little Bit of Heaven," "Say You," and "Once Kiss for Old Time's Sake." Slow-dancin', cuddlin' music. ;)

According to Ronnie Dove's Web site -- set to open in a new window, he still performs in the Baltimore area.

[gcruse]

Okay. I think I heard of some of them. I thought, from your description, he was a fifties rocker. Thanks for the info.

[maxwell]

given to sudden outbursts of enthusiam, usually 9 mm or larger

Bwahaha...

Well I gotta say Eminem's stuff is tolerable. If I'm drunk I can listen to it. Most of that rap dogwaste is just downright primitive though. Makes my IQ go down just thinking about it. (Wallllll not that "She Got The Ring And I Got The Finger," "If I Said You had A Beautiful Body, Would You Hold It Against Me?" or "Drop Kick Me, Jesus, Through The Goalposts of Life" is gonna do ya a whole lot better in any sort of intellectual aspiration... [snortle])

COUNTRY MUSIC LOWERS YOUR KID'S IQ

[maxwell]

And talk about IQ-lowering. With Spears, Timberlake and all the rest of them ridiculous teenyboppers, no wonder kids today are so fricking stupid.

I don't even know who's popular now with the kiddies but I do know I dig that one new song by Joe Nichols "She only smokes when she drinks". He reminds me of ol' whatshisname, John Anderson. Craig Morgan's "Almost home" is pretty good too. I think it was Randy Travis who put out that one about "3 wooden crosses" that is one of the best new songs I have heard in a while.

[montag813]

They also believe in sharing their musical tastes with everyone within a 20-mile radius of wherever they are located.

Yeah, or shouting "Yeah Bitch!" at Trinity, among other outbusrts as I watched "The Matrix: Reloaded" last night.

[THUNDER ROAD]

His songs include "When Liking Turns to Lovin'," "Just a Little Bit of Heaven....

Don't forget Mountain of Love by Ronnie Dove !

.....THUNDER......

[Molly Pitcher]

I can match you family for family! Oh, wait...we only have 2 kids. LOL! Just add 2 more then.

[Dan from Michigan]

What about the Southern Rock and Classic Rock fans?

[oceanperch]

My favorite is J Lo. and all dancing music I guess that would be hip/hop.

[Skywalk]

I think there's a tendency to conflate a form of music popular in a subculture with the music itself. For instance, punk rockers rarely just listen to punk music, they dress as a signal to others. So do hip hop fans. Other genres may or may not give rise to other cultural identifiers.

However, I think it's a mistake to lump in every rap fan as some thug. The FReeper Rdb3 isn't. Nor am I. None of my friends that I grew up with in Philly are thugs. My friend from Michigan who got his Masters in Fine Arts from there isn't. My friend Tim was in the Middle East, serving his country in the Air Force.

None of them are radical leftists, and a few are libertarian/conservative.

Telling though, is that all of us like other forms of music, be it jazz or classical or rock. I think little of the mind that can only tolerate one form of artistic expression.

[maxwell]

Yeah, I know.

I have one good bud who is all about rap and hiphop and looks like the last guy on earth who would even think about swiping your hubcaps. Kid next door kind of thing. My other bud looks like a Baptist youth minister and is into death rock. Neither has anything more'n a speeding ticket on his rap sheet.

I myself get pegged as a flaming redneck about 99% of the time when I tell folks I'm into country music, and then of course there are all the assumptions about intelligence, trailer parks, cross burning, and relations with domestic livestock. So it goes all ways.

Listened to modern rock stations for a while until its soul-lessness got to me. Emptiness, depression and suicide ain't really relaxing song topics for me, at least. Rap was too angry, too p!ssed off; I am p!ssed off enough most of the time anyway. Hiphop has too many notes. Can't stand Lilith Fair genre (too much b!tching). I listened to enough classical when I was an anklebiter. Used to listen to classic rock back in the day but got p!ssed at the morning crew for being anti-Bush in '00; found the pro-Bush country morning crew and haven't looked back.

Have always liked R.E.M. though, even their later stuff which is pretty much dogwaste...