Can we really judge a person by their musical taste? According to scientific studies, the answer is yes. Music is part of our lives. You can listen to it while you are driving your car, studying, doing homework, working out or even trying to sleep. That’s why personality is related to music taste. Depending on the kind of songs you choose while doing these activities, it says a lot about yourself.
The results of scientific studies
The Journal of Personality and Social Psychology published a recent study made with more than 350 thousand volunteers from 50 different countries. Each one was asked to describe their musical taste and answer a questionnaire about their personality. The researchers divided the musical taste descriptions into five groups: “Soft”, associated with soft rock, R&B and contemporary music; “Intense”, related to more aggressive and louder music, such as punk, classic rock, heavy metal and power rock; “Contemporary”, connected to electronic music, rap, Latin music and euro-pop; “Sophisticated”, referring to classic music, such as opera and jazz and “Unpretentious”, associated with an relaxing and country rythm.
Based on the results, the scientists discovered that outgoing people tend to prefer contemporary music; sociable individuals tend to have an interest in soft, sophisticated and contemporary styles and people that are more pessimistic and anxious tend to like intense genres. We can assume that our behavior and personality traits directly affect our musical taste preferences. Let’s take the result for anxious volunteers as an example: it is possible to affirm that individuals with these characteristics need to get rid of pent-up emotions and tensions. Although it is controversial, these group people opt to listen to more intense music than a relaxing and calming composition.
How can I define my musical taste based on my personality?
Now that you already know the scientific results, you probably want to know if your specific personality traits influence your musical taste. Let’s find out!
Psychologists from Cambridge University made a study using the “Big Five” model, used by scientists for more than 50 years. It categorizes 5 types of personality: Openness, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness and Neuroticism.
- Extrovert people: if you feel comfortable in talking with strangers and don’t struggle in socializing, you tend to enjoy relaxing and acoustic music, such as Folk or Country;
- Introvert people: if you are more reflective and thoughtful, you probably like classical music;
- Innovative people: open-minded individuals tend to prefer dynamic music, but the ones that “think outside the box” are not likely to enjoy slow and melancholic songs;
- Friendly people: this group tend to like every kind of music, they don’t have a specific music taste;
- Neurotic people: these individuals are extremely selective and have difficulties in enjoying any music taste.
If you didn’t identify yourself with any type of personality, don’t worry. Our musical taste is not affected exclusively by personality traits, it also depends on age, culture, country and even gender. In addition, according to David M. Greenberg, researcher from Bar-Ilan University and Cambridge University, we prefer music artists whose personalities we identify with: “When people listen to music, they’re being driven by how similar that artist is to themselves”.
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The article above was edited by Camila Lutfi.
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