Research involving more than 3,50,000 participants from over 50 countries and 6 continents has found that links between musical preferences and personality are universal.
The findings suggested that music could play a greater role in overcoming social division, as well as offering currently untapped therapeutic benefits. The study was published in the ‘Journal of Personality and Social Psychology’.
Ed Sheeran’s song ‘Shivers’ is as likely to appeal to extroverts living in the UK as those living in Argentina or India. Those with neurotic traits in the US are as likely to be into Nirvana’s ‘Smells like Teen Spirit’ as people with a similar personality living in Denmark or South Africa. Agreeable people the world over will tend to like Marvin Gaye’s ‘What’s Going On’, or Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper’s ‘Shallow’; while national borders cannot stop open people from replaying David Bowie’s ‘Space Oddity’ or ‘Nina Simone’. But it does not matter where a conscientious person lives, they are unlikely to enjoy ‘Rage Against the Machine’.
These are the kind of assumptions supported by new research led by Dr David Greenberg, an Honorary Research Associate at the University of Cambridge and a Postdoctoral Scholar at Bar-Ilan University.
Across the world, without significant variation, the researchers found the same positive correlations between extraversion and contemporary music; between conscientiousness and unpretentious music; between agreeableness and mellow and unpretentious music; and between openness and mellow, contemporary, intense and sophisticated music. They also identified a clear negative correlation between conscientiousness and intense music.
Greenberg, who wore many hats as a musician, neuroscientist, and psychologist, said, “We were surprised at just how much these patterns between music and personality replicated across the globe. People may be divided by geography, language and culture, but if an introvert in one part of the world likes the same music as introverts elsewhere, that suggests that music could be a very powerful bridge. Music helps people to understand one another and find common ground.”
His study explained why personality traits were linked to musical styles. The researchers accurately predicted that extraversion, which is defined by excitement-seeking, sociability, and positive emotions, would be positively associated with contemporary music that has upbeat, positive, and danceable features. Similarly, they were not surprised to find that conscientiousness, which is associated with order and obedience, clashed with intense musical styles, which is characterized by aggressiveness and rebellious themes.
But one finding was proving to be more puzzling. Greenberg said, “We thought that neuroticism would have likely gone one of two ways, either preferring sad music to express their loneliness or preferring upbeat music to shift their mood. Actually, on average, they seem to prefer more intense musical styles, which perhaps reflects inner angst and frustration.”
“That was surprising but people use music in different ways – some might use it for catharsis, others to change their mood. So there may be subgroups who score high on neuroticism who listen to mellow music for one reason and another subgroup that is more frustrated and perhaps prefer intense music to let off steam. We’ll be looking into that in more detail.”
The researchers also found that the correlation between extraversion and contemporary music was particularly strong around the equator, above all in Central and South America. This could suggest that climatic factors influenced musical preferences and that people in warmer climates tend to have personality traits that make them more likely to prefer rhythmic, danceable music.
Greenberg, who continued to perform as a professional saxophonist, had a very diverse playlist which was typical of people who scored high on openness. He said, “I’ve always loved jazz and now I’m also really into the music of different world religions, which makes perfect sense based on my personality traits.”
Greenberg and his colleagues used two different musical preference assessment methods to assess an unprecedented number of participants living in more than 50 countries. The first required people to self-report the extent to which they liked listening to 23 genres of music as well as completing the Ten-Item Personality Inventory (TIPI) and providing demographic information.
The researchers focused on Western music primarily because it is the most listened to globally and results based on Western music offer the strongest potential to be applied in real-world and therapeutic settings globally.
