PsyPost
No Result
View All Result
PsyPost
No Result
View All Result
Home Exclusive Social Psychology

Study finds musical tastes predict personality traits and political orientation

by Eric W. Dolan
September 27, 2019
in Social Psychology
(Photo credit: Victor1558)

(Photo credit: Victor1558)

Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

New research published in the journal Psychology of Music provides evidence that musical preferences are related to aspects of personality and political beliefs.

“There is a lot of research on music and personality but it tends to identify only weak relationships. We thought that this is because it has tended to look at how liking for a particular musical style relates to only very broad domains on personality (such as openness to experience, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism),” explained study author Adrian C. North of Curtin University.

“We tested the idea that a more fine-grained approach to personality might explain this. Rather than looking at each of the Big Five personality dimensions as a whole, we looked at the sub-components of each dimension.”

The researchers surveyed 157 Australian university students (aged 17 to 55 years) regarding their musical preferences, their personality, and their political beliefs. The measure of personality, known as the Big Five Aspects Scale, breaks each trait down into two subcomponents, resulting in a total of ten aspects of personality.

The findings confirmed that there were some relationships between musical tastes and personality. “However, this relationship is much stronger when you look at the specific aspects that make up each of the main personality domains,” North told PsyPost.

“For example, liking for rhythmic music (rap, hip hop, soul, R&B, and reggae) was not related to the broad domain of agreeableness, but was related to the aspects that make up agreeableness, namely compassion and politeness.”

“In particular, liking for rhythmic music was related positively to compassion but related negatively to politeness: at the broad domain level each cancelled out the other (which is why there was no relationship at the domain level of agreeableness), but masked significant relationships at the level of the specific aspects,” North said.

A preference for intense and established musical genres was also associated with a liberal political orientation. In other words, people who enjoyed these types of music were more likely to to believe in advocating for social change and equality.

“Liberalism was related positively to intense music (i.e., punk, metal, rock, and indie) and established music (folk, jazz/blues, classical music, and country). Your world view in general relates to your musical taste,” North told PsyPost.

However, it is unclear how well the results of the study generalize to other populations. “The research was conducted in Australia and so we cannot say if these same findings would be found in other cultures,” North noted.

The study, “Predicting musical taste: Relationships with personality aspects and political orientation“, was authored by Scott P. Devenport and Adrian C. North.

ShareTweetSendScanShareSharePin3Send

Get all the latest updates on new psychology research with the free PsyPost app.
 


NEWSLETTER SIGN-UP

STAY CONNECTED

TRENDING

Children who play more video games show greater gains in intelligence over time, study finds

Young children are more irritable when their mother has emotion regulation difficulties

Psychopathic women who desire marriage are more likely to experience insults from their partner

New study suggests that psychopathic individuals tend to become even worse after age 50

New psychology research uncovers a “hidden source” of regret

Brain imaging study suggests that drinking coffee enhances neurocognitive function

RECENT

Study sheds light on the neurocognitive processes linked to perceiving social injustice during arrests of Black civilians

Children who play more video games show greater gains in intelligence over time, study finds

Study finds contrapposto poses in male models influence perceptions of attractiveness and masculinity

Young children are more irritable when their mother has emotion regulation difficulties

Women who dress provocatively are judged negatively by other women due to perceptions of promiscuity

  • Cognitive Science
  • COVID-19
  • Mental Health
  • Social Psychology
  • Drug Research
  • Conspiracy Theories
  • Meditation
  • Psychology of Religion
  • Aviation Psychology and Human Factors
  • Relationships and Sexual Health
Powered by

About

PsyPost is a psychology and neuroscience news website dedicated to reporting the latest research on human behavior, cognition, and society. (READ MORE...)

  • Contact us
  • Privacy policy

No Result
View All Result
  • About
    • Newsletter signup form
  • Cart
  • Checkout
  • Contact
  • Contact us
  • My account
  • Privacy policy
  • Psychology news
  • PsyPost app privacy policy
  • Shop
  • SmartMag Home

This website uses cookies. By continuing to use this website you are giving consent to cookies being used.