You would think, music being so much a part of almost everyone’s life, that there would be a lot of scientific research on why we choose to listen to the music we do–but you would be wrong.
Of the nearly 11,000 articles published between 1965 and 2002 in the leading social and personality scientific journals, music is listed as an index term or subject heading in only seven.
Peter J. Rentfrow and Samuel D. Gosling of the Department of Psychology at the University of Texas in Austin are out to change that. They hope the research they recently published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology will form the basis for a theory that may eventually explain when, where how and why people listen to music.
Boiled down, their findings indicate that, when it comes to understanding someone’s personality, you could do worse than to rummage through their music collection.
Over the course of six studies, Rentfrow and Gosling uncovered people’s beliefs about the importance of music, and linked various personality traits to individuals’ musical preferences.
In their first study, participants ranked music and hobbies as their most important lifestyle and leisure activities; indicated they believe music preference reveals a lot of information about personal qualities (along with hobbies and bedrooms), and reported they listened to music frequently in all sorts of situations (driving, alone at home, exercising and hanging out with friends rated the highest).
Having established the importance of music, the researchers had their study subjects (University of Texas undergraduates) take personality tests and attempted to find linkages between the results of those tests and the results of what they called the STOMP (Short Test of Music Preferences). The STOMP lists 14 types of music, which participants were asked to rate on a scale of 1 to 7, from strongly dislike to strongly like.
The various types of music (boiled down from the music collections users of online music-trading software have posted) were grouped into four major categories: Reflective and Complex (classical, blues, folk and jazz); Intense and Rebellious (alternative, rock and heavy metal); Upbeat and Conventional (country, religious, pop and soundtracks/theme songs) and Energetic and Rhythmic (dance/electronica, rap/hip-hop and soul/funk).
When the numbers had been crunched, the researchers did indeed find linkages between music preferences and personality traits.
Study participants who liked classical, blues, folk and jazz tended to be inventive, have active imaginations, value aesthetic experiences, consider themselves to be intelligent, be tolerant of others, and reject conservative ideals.
Those who liked alternative, rock and heavy metal were likely to be curious about different things, enjoy taking risks, be physically active, and consider themselves intelligent. (Despite the perception that this type of music emphasizes negative emotions, those who liked it did not display any particular signs of neuroticism or disagreeableness.)
Subjects who liked to listen to country, pop and soundtracks tended to be cheerful, socially outgoing and reliable, enjoy helping others, see themselves as physically attractive, and be relatively conventional.
Finally, those who liked dance/electronica, rap/hip-hop and soul/funk tended to be talkative, full of energy, and forgiving, to see themselves as physically attractive, and to have little use for conservative ideals.
None of the categories of music showed strong correlations with emotional stability, depression and self-esteem, but the researchers don’t believe that means emotional state has nothing to do with music preference; instead, they say, it’s likely that people tend to pieces of music that suit their mood but still fit within the general type of music they prefer: i.e., a jazz listener might listen to something upbeat on a happy day and the blues on a sad day.
Further research is needed to uncover the reasons for the linkage between personality and music preferences, but Rentfrow and Gosling suggest one reason could be that people choose music to reinforce their self-image: someone who thinks of herself as sophisticated might choose to listen to esoteric music; someone who cranks up the heavy metal and rolls down the car windows may be trying to appear tough.
So the next time you’re selecting music for that romantic evening at home with that special someone, be aware that what you select may say more about you than you know.
And if you’re the special someone invited for the romantic evening, try to get a chance to poke through the CD collection. You may discover that you’ve found your soulmate.
On the other hand, you may also discover Barry Manilow Live, in which case I suggest you flee immediately.
