Music and Personality

Can you tell someone’s personality from their music taste?

According to recent study, yes you can. A study by Greenberg (2022) confirmed other studies in the past that link certain music interest with personality traits. On top of that, Greenberg (2022) discovered that this tendency is universal!

Meaning whether you are from Asia, or Europe, or anywhere in the world, certain personality traits are more drawn to certain rhythm, regardless of your gender.

Greenberg divided the traits based on Big Five Personality Traits which are Extraversion, Conscientiousness, Agreeable, Openness, and Neurotic, and used various Western Music genres as musical preferences options to choose by the participants.

Check out the results of the study and tell me if it applies to you too! There is interesting note about those who live in Equator (like Indonesia) in the last part.

Characteristics of Big Five Personality Traits:

• Extraversion : excitement-seeking, sociability, emotionally expressive.

• Conscientiousness: orderly, obedience, and dependable.

• Agreeableness : cooperative, trustworthy.

• Openness :having strong intellectual curiosity, creativity, and preference for novelty.

• Neurotic: anxious, unstable emotions.

The five western music preferences category:

1.'Mellow' (featuring romantic, slow, and quiet attributes as heard in soft rock, R&B, and adult contemporary genres),

2. 'Unpretentious' (uncomplicated, relaxing, and unaggressive attributes as heard in country genres),

3. 'Sophisticated' (inspiring, complex, and dynamic features as heard in classical, operatic, avant-garde, and traditional jazz genres),

4. 'Intense' (distorted, loud, and aggressive attributes as heard in classic rock, punk, heavy metal, and power pop genres),

5. 'Contemporary' (rhythmic, upbeat, and electronic attributes as heard in the rap, electronica, Latin, and Euro-pop genres).

The Results:

• Those who score high on Extraversion trait tend to enjoy Contemporary Music

• Those who score high on Conscientiousness trait prefer Unpretentious Music

• There is also a clear negative correlation between Conscientiousness trait and Intense Music

• Those who score high on Agreeableness trait tend to enjoy Mellow Music and Unpretentious Music.

• Those who score high on Openness trait enjoy Mellow Music, Contemporary Music, Intense Music, and Sophisticated Music.

• As you can see, being open to experiences means you are more open to many music genres too!

• Those who score high on Neurotic trait on average seem to prefer more intense musical styles which perhaps reflects inner angst and frustration.

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 influence musical preferences and that people in warmer climates tend to have personality traits which make them more likely to prefer rhythmic, danceable music.

Knowing that musical preference is universal and applies across age, gender, and ethnicities, is such a wonderful finding! It is a step closer to using music as an important tool to communicate - even without text or lyrics, and to understand our differences. What do you think? Send me an email, I’d love to hear from you :)

Source:

1. David M. Greenberg, Sebastian J. Wride, Daniel A. Snowden, Dimitris Spathis, Jeff Potter, Peter J. Rentfrow. Universals and variations in musical preferences: A study of preferential reactions to Western music in 53 countries.. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 2022; 122 (2): 286 DOI: 10.1037/pspp0000397

2. Tom Almeroth-Williams for Sciencedaily.com