Musical Tastes Correlate with Personality Traits
Musical key to unlocking teenage wasteland | theage.com.au.
I came across this very interesting article the other day. It describes how music genres correlate to personality traits. The findings are the following:
WHAT STUDIES SAY ABOUT YOUR SOUNDS:
POP: Conformists, overly responsible, role-conscious, struggling with sexuality or peer acceptance.
HEAVY METAL: Higher levels of suicidal ideation, depression, drug use, self-harm, shoplifting, vandalism, unprotected sex.
DANCE: Higher levels of drug use regardless of socio-economic background.
JAZZ/RHYTHM & BLUES: Introverted misfits, loners.
RAP: Higher levels of theft, violence, anger, street gang membership, drug use and misogyny.
Not only metal causes depression, it can also make you look like these guys
Of course, it’s pretty obvious that we don’t need a research to identify that music genres create groups of like-minded individuals who share common traits. The authors, fortunately, offer a complete view of the subject stating that…
"It’s more a case of teenagers who may have a mental illness or are involved in these antisocial behaviours being drawn to certain types of music."
…instead of accusing metal or rap for anti-social behavior. We all remember how Marilyn Manson and Eminem were accused of causing the Columbine murders. Michael Moore offered in his documentary Bowling for Columbine a very nice view on the whole fuss about Manson.
Surely he ain’t pretty, but he didn’t kill nobody
Of course, the relation among music, culture and individual concerning personality is much more complex. For example, dance music lovers are reported to have higher percentages of drug abuse. In my opinion this could be explained as following
1)Dance music is a music played mainly in clubs, where people go to socialize. Drug abuse can facilitate this process, either by relaxation, or using this habbit as an opportunity to engage in conversation
Wanna share this with me?
2)Stimulant drugs (like cocaine, ecstasy and amphetamines) can offer much excitement in the dance club context. When the club is full of people, energy and dancing, using a stimulant to dance along with the others or to stay up until the next morning is a choice that many people make.
3)Stimulant drugs can be addictive, so, once someone uses them a few times, the addiction becomes one more way of connecting with the dance culture.
The research showed no variance depending on the socioeconomic background, so we can suppose that reason like poverty have nothing to do with dance club drug abuse. As it seems the "excitement theory" I offered above seems a plausible explanation.
Of course, concerning metal and depression, I believe the case to be different. As an avid metal listener for years, I know that most metal themes circle around dark subjects. So, the correlation with depression comes to me as no surprise. However, I believe that we can’t point to a certain way things work here, that is, whether metal causes depression or depressive teens listen to metal. I believe that maybe both happen and then the whole procedure works as a feedback loop, each part making depression stronger, thus solidifying certain traits in the listeners.
Something that intrigued very much was the characterization of jazz/blues listeners as misfits and loners. I’d like to read a few more things as how this came to be. I’ve been listening to jazz for a very long time, and I don’t know if I could be categorized in these categories.
PsyBlog also offers a research which could help us a little Personality Secrets in Your Mp3 Player
In that research, jazz listeners are classified as "intellectual".
Concerning the research, the subjects had to judge other people’s personality solely on their 10 top songs. PsyBlog reports:
"Overall the results showed that music preferences were reasonably accurate in conveying aspects of personality. Of the five traits, it was a person’s openness to experience that was best communicated by their top 10 list of songs, followed by extraversion and emotional stability. On the other hand, music preferences didn’t say much about whether a person was conscientious or not."
Your new personality test
Psyblog then goes a little further
"This raises the question of why people listen to particular types of music. One theory is that people simply find some music more pleasant for aesthetic or cognitive reasons. Another is that people use music to regulate their mood: I want to get hyper for a night out so I put on some dance music. Another is that music is related to identity; people listen to music that expresses they way they see themselves. It seems likely that a combination of all these theories is probably true."
I believe that we have one more interesting point we ought to mention. That is of course what is the use of music? There is no single explanation for that and there have been many theories. However, music holds a great interest for evolutionary psychology. It’s a trait shared by all civilizations, throughout history and by all humans, regardless of status or age. Therefore, it must have some evolutionary significance. We will not go on to investigate these theories (which range from theories that treat music’s reproductive benefits, to Steven Pinker’s theory that music is just an evolutionary byproduct, with no obvious benefits).
However, I believe that the first research could provide a foundation for an evolutionary explanation of music. Maybe music is a strong group bonding factor, but not only that. Maybe music helps in the survival of groups which are composed of individuals in adverse conditions. So, for example, metal and rap can provide mental support through song listening, and peer support through the creation of groups with similar musical tastes. This is a subject that we will surely delve into a little deeper in future articles.
Until then, keep on rockin’ !
