People judge rap music fans as more capable of murder, new study finds

New research published in the journal Psychology of Music suggests that people often form negative opinions about individuals simply because they listen to rap music. The findings indicate that reading violent or sexually explicit rap lyrics causes observers to view a hypothetical fan of that music as more sexually aggressive and more capable of committing murder. This provides evidence that negative stereotypes associated with rap music extend beyond the artists who create it and affect how everyday fans are perceived.

Rap and hip-hop are among the most popular music genres in the world today, with millions of people streaming these songs daily. At the same time, the genre tends to be associated with controversial themes. Some songs frequently reference violence, drug use, and the objectification of women.

Past studies show that these stereotypes can have serious consequences in the real world, especially within the justice system. In criminal trials, prosecutors sometimes use a defendant’s own rap lyrics as evidence of their poor character, violent tendencies, or even as a confession. Research provides evidence that mock jurors judge a lyricist more harshly when exposed to their rap lyrics. A mock juror is a person who participates in a simulated trial to help researchers understand how real juries might make decisions.

“We were fascinated by the continued inclusion of rap lyrics as evidence in criminal trial proceedings, which is a practice not commonly applied to other music genres or art forms,” said study author Kaila Putter, a doctoral candidate and senior research officer at James Cook University in Australia. “Despite the genre’s immense popularity, there are still concerns that rap music promotes misogyny, violence and criminality.”

The scientists wanted to know if these negative assumptions apply to the people who simply listen to the music, rather than writing it. A person’s musical preference is a common piece of social information, and people often use it to make snap judgments about someone’s personality. The researchers also wanted to explore whether the specific label of the music genre or the actual content of the lyrics drives these character judgments.

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To test their ideas, the researchers conducted two separate online experiments. In the first study, they recruited 300 adults living in the United States and Australia. Participants read a short biographical description of a fictional 18-year-old African American high school student. The student was described as an athlete with a good academic record who planned to attend college on a scholarship.

The researchers randomly assigned participants to read slightly different versions of this description. Some versions included a statement that the student was accused of murdering a former girlfriend, while others did not. Some versions included a set of violent and sexually explicit lyrics from the student’s favorite rap song, while others omitted the lyrics entirely. Finally, the student was presented as either male or female.

After reading the description, participants rated the student on a scale measuring different personality traits. Specifically, they were asked how capable of murder and how sexually aggressive they believed the student to be. Participants also answered an open-ended question asking what main piece of information they considered when making their ratings. Finally, they completed a survey about their own personal attitudes toward rap music.

The researchers found that the presence of the rap lyrics significantly influenced the participants’ opinions. When the description included the rap lyrics, participants rated the fan as more capable of murder and more sexually aggressive. The gender of the fan did not change these negative ratings, as male and female fans were judged equally harshly when the lyrics were present.

“While we may no longer observe the moral panic associated with rap music seen in decades past, the negative stereotypes associated with this genre are still pervasive, and they extend to fans of rap,” Putter told PsyPost.

The written responses revealed that participants consciously used the lyrics to judge the student. In conditions where the student was both accused of murder and linked to the rap lyrics, many participants focused more heavily on the song lyrics than the actual murder accusation. This suggests that simply liking a controversial song was seen as a major flaw in character.

“Perhaps most strikingly, in Study 1, when participants were asked to provide character ratings of a hypothetical fan of rap music, they reported greater consideration of the rap lyrics presented to them than an accusation of murder,” Putter said. “In other words, when making judgments about a hypothetical person, it appears that rap lyrics said to be from the person’s favorite song carries more weight than an accusation of murder.”

The authors then conducted a second experiment to see if the specific genre label was responsible for these judgments, or if the words themselves were to blame. For this study, they recruited 504 adults from the United States and Australia. They used the same basic description of the 18-year-old male student and the same set of violent lyrics used in the first experiment.

This time, they altered the criminal accusation to include either a murder charge, a domestic violence charge, or no crime at all. They also changed the musical genre label attached to the lyrics. Depending on the condition, the exact same lyrics were described as coming from a rap, heavy metal, electronic dance music, or pop song, or no genre was listed at all.

The researchers chose these specific genres because heavy metal and electronic dance music are also frequently considered problem music. Heavy metal is sometimes associated with physical aggression, while electronic dance music is often linked to recreational drug use. Pop music, on the other hand, is generally seen as harmless and is not typically linked to criminal behavior.

The scientists expected that labeling the lyrics as rap would lead to harsher judgments than labeling them as pop or electronic dance music. Surprisingly, the assigned genre label did not significantly affect how capable of murder or sexually aggressive the fan was perceived to be. Just as in the first experiment, the participants’ own attitudes toward rap were the strongest predictor of their ratings. People with positive views of rap saw the fan as less dangerous.

To understand why the genre label had little effect, the researchers looked at how the participants naturally categorized the song. They discovered that over 80 percent of the participants correctly identified the lyrics as rap music, regardless of the label they were given. This suggests that the lyrical content itself was so recognizable that it triggered rap-related stereotypes even when participants were explicitly told the song belonged to a pop or heavy metal genre.

“Importantly, participants’ perception of rap music influenced how they rated the hypothetical person,” Putter noted. “That is, those who held more positive views of rap were less likely to make negative character judgments. This finding highlights the importance of educating people on the historical influences and artistic conventions associated with rap music so as to challenge assumptions about the inflammatory content and autobiographical nature of rap lyrics.”

The authors note a few limitations to consider. “While our findings can be understood in the context of the potential negative consequences of rap-related stereotypes when presenting rap lyrics as evidence in criminal trials, our experiments were not conducted in a mock trial setting,” Putter said.

Additionally, the lyrics used in the experiment were highly violent and misogynistic, which means they do not represent all styles of hip-hop. Many rap songs feature positive messages, and different styles of lyrics might not produce the same negative character judgments.

Another limitation is that the fictional fan was specifically presented as an African American high school student. Because previous research links rap stereotypes to broader racial prejudices, changing the race of the fan might yield different results. Most of the participants in these two experiments identified as white, which might also influence how the cultural aspects of the music were interpreted.

In the future, scientists could explore how people react to hearing the music rather than just reading written lyrics on a screen. Listeners often focus more on the beat or the melody of a song than the exact words, and people regularly mishear or misunderstand sung lyrics. Researchers could also conduct these experiments in a simulated courtroom setting to see exactly how these biases might impact real legal decisions.

“It would be interesting to conduct experiments examining rap-related stereotypes in the Australian context, for example those associated with Drill rap groups (e.g., OneFour) and their fans,” Putter added.

The study, “Character judgements of rap music fans,” was authored by Kaila C. Putter, Dan J. Miller, Amy Belfi, James Rees, and Amanda E. Krause.