Everyone in the world listens to music. There are no exceptions (even
deaf people are able to “listen” to music - through the vibrations of a floor,
etc). We are listening to music while driving to work, during our work, on the
streets, at home, during a movie in the cinema.. We are surrounded by music as
an integral part of our lives. How does music effect us, our behavior, our
mood? Does the music we listen to reflect our personality? There were many
studies to answer these questions. Psychologists accept that individual differences could be summarized
according to five different dimensions (the Big Five model).
Psychologists were trying to
find correlation between personality and music preferences. To do so, they conducted a survey in which
respondents were categorized by their personality and music they listen to.
People rated high in openness to experience prefer more complex and novel
music like classical, jazz, and rebellious music. It’s caused by their natural
need to look for challenges - classical music or jazz is more diverse than
other genres and its more likely to find something new.
Extroverts have been linked
to preferences in happy, upbeat, conventional music and rhythmic music (rap, hip-hop,
soul etc.). These genres “encourage” to dance and move, music is more emotional
than intellectual experience. A very important part of a music are lyrics.
Agreeable individuals
listen to upbeat and conventional music. In addition, if they listen to the
music they have never listened to before, they display an intense emotional
response.
What music do people categorized as neurotic listen to? Generally they prefer
upbeat and conventional music (pop, soundtracks). In music, they look for extreme emotions in contrast to conscientious individuals, who prefer more “stable” genres such as blues, R&B and
electronic music.
For those who would like to find out
which traits they possess, I encourage to do the test at (http://personality-testing.info/tests/BIG5.php)
and compare results with their own music preferences :-)
Do you think that it is possible to
find correlation between personality and music preferences? Does the music we
listen to reflect our personality?
Bonus question: Does music you listen
to make you dumb?
http://musicthatmakesyoudumb.virgil.gr/index.php
http://musicthatmakesyoudumb.virgil.gr/index.php
References:
Comments
Extraversion 4 percentile
Conscientiousness 90
Neuroticism 64
Agreeableness 63
Openness 95
According to your article, I should listen to "classical, jazz, and rebellious music" but also "“stable” genres such as blues, R&B and electronic music"... I think it's quite a clash, isn't it? :D
Anyway, I do listen to metal and rock music most often. However, I love experimental, avantgarde music, as much as contemporary classics and soundtracks. It would place me in "Openness" section.
I think that research is quite interesting. I've wondered many times if the type of music you like is connected to personality traits or interests. However, I'd like it more if it was based on some more complex personality test, for example Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI), which specifies 16 personality types instead of just 5.
It has already been proven that the character and amout of IQ points :) have a influance on each other ! There are always some exceptions but given the statistics, surely it can be predicted somehow. As is in this case, you can try to guess someone's else musical tastes in a few moments ! As Magdalena Gawęcka also they should take geofraphical place as a factor !
It has already been proven that the character and amout of IQ points :) have a influance on each other ! There are always some exceptions but given the statistics, surely it can be predicted somehow. As is in this case, you can try to guess someone's else musical tastes in a few moments ! As Magdalena Gawęcka also they should take geofraphical place as a factor !
Also, I'm disappointed with the comparison of SAT scores to music genres. I took the SATs and got a pretty high score listening to bands listed under the left hand side of the graph.
I'm sure that there is a strong connection between one's personality and their music choice but it may not be such an obvious and general division as the common music genres.
Oh, We can clasifiy us according to music which we listen - splendidly. So, it isn't easy. It seems to me that I am between.
I think that it is possible to find correlation between personality and music preferences. I' m sure that it go hand in hand. However if we will listen to the dumb music it may make us dumb.
Moreover I know that there exists music therapy that is field of music or its elements to restore health or improve the functioning of people with a variety of emotional problems, physical or mental. Music allows you to reach out to the deep-seated conflicts and extracts and stimulates emotions. Common experience of positive emotions gives you a chance to break the barriers of shyness and change you personality traits.
I believe that if it goes about music preferences there are much more factors that influence it, as example everyone experience, sex, age or even origin. And the other thing is that in my opinion we could also revers our thinking and talk about how music we’re listening influences and changes us – do you think it might influence our personalities?
I'm really convinced about that second thing. I mean I don't really think music can MAKE you dumb. These results surely are based on some research (I didn't really pay attention to that) but I'd think the correlation goes the other way round - maybe, just maybe people who get worse scores statistically tend to choose this or that kind of music. But you know what it's like with statistics - put one hand in the freezer, the second in the oven and you're statistically perfectly fine ;)
Extraversion – 3,5 / 65%
Conscientiousness – 4,3 / 87%
Neuroticism – 2,9/ 44%
Agreeableness – 3,8/ 39%
Openness – 3,9 /36%
I really love jazz, classical music and soundtracks from movies and my “openness” level is pretty low (I think?), I truly despise rap and hip-hop and “extraversion” at 65% is a pretty high score. My “Conscientiousness” is the highest and I don’t like any of the genres that you mentioned. Anyway I don’t think it’s very accurate. Our mood can influence our choice in music but I don’t think it’s that simple and that only our character and mood influence our taste.
A couple of years ago I read a book by Oliver Sacks titled “Musicophilia” where the author analyzes people’s minds and their correlation to music. If you are interested in such topics I highly recommend it.
I am not quite sure with the thesis, that our music tastes depend on the personality. To be honest I have no idea what it could be related to, but there are so many situations where people listen kinds of music that seem not to fit them ;P
Besides that our taste changes once in about 6 years, and I realised how it works for me – every 6 years I start to listen completely different music, I think that during my life I have listened to many, completely different genres. How about you?
I feel like there's definitely some kind of correlation between musical genres and traits of people who listen to specific types of music, but I believe that often the deciding factor that makes people attracted to certain bands/genres are the personalities of artists themselves not the music by itself. Very interesting article though!
try to do something creative after 4 hours of listening Bieber (no offense).
but seriously: 5 personality types might be not enough to describe whole people around the world, so doing more complex studies is a great idea ;)
I took the test and I got the highest score in Openness which, as you wrote, means I prefer more complex music like classical or jazz. Well, I do listen to this type of music quite often, so it kind of matches. But on the other hand, I listen to more than that and I don't really do this because I'm seeking a challenge. I'm simply curious, and I love discovering new things. Actually it's easier for me to tell which kind of music I don't listen to than saying which I prefer.
Pretty much like Magdalena Gawęcka, I choose music depending on my mood and what I'm currently doing. I use upbeat, energetic music when I'm tidying up house for example. There's even a playlist on Spotify named Cleaning the House which I follow for that reason (https://open.spotify.com/user/spotify/playlist/0cpjMVagpkRrxLBhobs3uo if you're interested, Spotify users). When I'm working or studying, I like to play music that helps me to focus. While I'm painting something I seek music that evokes the atmosphere of the scene or perhaps I give up on music completely and just listen to ambient sounds from this site: https://mynoise.net/noiseMachines.php (love it). And so on, and so on. Music can be a very useful tool.
As for the bonus question, yes I think music can make you dumb... in some way. If it annoys you, you don't like it, it might anger you and you won't be able to focus on whatever you want to do. Technically limiting your abilities. ;P
Extraversion 3.5/ 65%
Conscientiousness 3.9/ 71%
Neuroticism 3.8/ 78%
Agreeableness 4.1/ 57%
Openness 4.1/ 47%
Back to music, I listen to many kinds of music in my case it depends on my mood. Sometimes when I have free time I like go to the walk with headphones and only observe the surroundings or I think about situations that I recently befallen. It's really relaxing for me. I think everyone had that listening to music on headphones felt like his life was one big music video, you know what feel I mean? ;)
Music is something amazing, it can affect our emotions. I think it's really big part of life, could you imagine great films without music?! They certainly not be longer as great.
I think that there is no rule for this kind of music we listen, I know very smart people who like to listen to disco polo and I see nothing wrong in it :) In my opinion we shouldn't limited to one type of music. I try to listen to different kinds of music from many countries and time period.
In my opinion personality is fully correlated with music preferences. However, everyone is different and we can't describe the man based on music preferences.
Of course I don't think that music I listen to makes me dumb.