Music Choice Reveals Your Personality

Reuters

[meow]

"Music Choice Reveals Your Personality"

The next time you go to a party and want to hook up with someone new, ask this question to find just the right person: What kind of music do you like? Turns out, the music a person likes also reveals fun facts about his or her personality, according to new research from the University of Texas at Austin.

If you like blues, jazz, classical, or folk music... ...then you are intelligent, tolerant, and politically liberal.

If you like country or religious music... ...then you are cheerful, outgoing, reliable, and conventional.

If you like alternative or heavy metal music... ...then you are physically active and a curious risk-taker.

If you like rap/hip-hop or and dance music... ...then you are outgoing and agreeable and generally eschew conservative ideals.

Memorize this list. When you ask that cute stranger what kind of music he or she likes, you'll know if the two of you will hit it off. "It assumes that knowing the answer tells you something about who they are" and whether or not to pursue a relationship, Dr. Peter J. Rentfrow, a psychologist at the University of Texas at Austin and the lead study author, told Reuters. Along with Dr. Samuel D. Gosling, Rentfrow conducted six studies on over 3,500 students examining their music preferences, beliefs about music, self-perceptions, and cognitive abilities.

Don't look now, but advertisers can also use the same psychology. Fitting just the right music with just the right product for just the right demographics could make sales soar. "We might come up with typologies comprised of music preferences, socioeconomic status, and age," Rentfrow predicted to Reuters. He says there is very little research to date on music preferences and personalities because many consider it mundane. But Rentfrow doesn't agree. His findings suggest mthat personality, self-perception, and cognitive ability each play a role in the "formation and maintenance of music preferences."

[Petronski]

I'll listen to Debussy, Pat Metheny, Rush and Disturbed on the same afternoon. What does that make me? ;)

A Debussy fan with a brain tumor?

[Petronski]

Say, have any "not-liberal" classical lovers signed up for one of the new no-commercial satellite services?

XMRadio is cooler than the other side of the pillow!