[News] Music Tastes Link To Personality

[Foxglove]

Whilst I do think that music taste may well be reflective of personality, I am not convinced by this report. According to Professor North of Heriot-Watt University, the following are personality traits of people enjoying certain genres of music:

BLUES High self-esteem, creative, outgoing, gentle and at ease



JAZZ High self-esteem, creative, outgoing and at ease



CLASSICAL MUSIC High self-esteem, creative, introvert and at ease



RAP High self-esteem, outgoing



OPERA High self-esteem, creative, gentle



COUNTRY AND WESTERN Hardworking, outgoing



REGGAE High self-esteem, creative, not hardworking, outgoing, gentle and at ease



DANCE Creative, outgoing, not gentle



INDIE Low self-esteem, creative, not hard working, not gentle



BOLLYWOOD Creative, outgoing



ROCK/HEAVY METAL Low self-esteem, creative, not hard-working, not outgoing, gentle, at ease



CHART POP High self-esteem, not creative, hardworking, outgoing, gentle, not at ease



SOUL High self-esteem, creative, outgoing, gentle, at ease


Source: Heriot-Watt University

Full report here.

Although perhaps the suggestion that most of the users of this forum have low self esteem and are not hard workers is not totally off the mark?

[slicer]

Saw that on Friday. Loada baws if you ask me.

[djtoast]

the only two categories i'd say i don't enjoy and actively choose to listen to out of those are country and western, and bollywood (which i thought was a film genre, do they mean bhangra?) - so am i a complex, contradictory individual, man?

[slicer]

Originally Posted by djtoast

so am i a complex, contradictory individual, man?

Aye, totall, but we could have told you that anyway

[Zippy]

A whole heap a bullshit.

[TheCastrator]

So I'm a creative, outgoing introvert with high self esteem, low self esteem, a lack and posession of work ethic who's at ease, gentle, and not at ease and not gentle.

Yes, this is arse.

[Jenpot]

Absolute rubbish. The closest music I listen to out of all that is "indie" and I am an arrogant fucker, so low-self esteem is not the best word to use.

[Witch]

poppycock (great word) i listen to a few of those, how does the numpty explain that!?

[Evapilotone]

Here, I love Heavy/Death Metal and I'm better than everyone (j/k). Load of shite.

[Foxglove]

Originally Posted by Zippy

A whole heap a bullshit.

And yet someone was paid to research this. It amazes me what random shite is subjected to "research". Isn't this tantamount to saying if your birth sign is Scorpio then you have certain personality traits? Sure, for some people this is true but as with star signs and the traits mentioned in this research, the traits are so generalised they could cover anyone and everyone. I don't think it is worth researching to say if you have certain personaility traits you might like certain music as that seems pretty obvious, but very generalised.

And what is not clear from the report is how the research dealt with people who have a really varied musical taste, which many people do.

[endless psych]

To everyone who is personally questioning the results based on their own experience.

More than 36,000 people from all over the world were asked to rate 104 musical styles and also questioned about aspects of their personality.

Going by whats in the report there is little to suggest thats a valid argument. If someone could actually get hold of the actual article they could perhaps criticise it in terms of its sampling frame. Was the sample self selecting? (Which seems likely given the numbers involved) How was the sample gathered? (Is is a true random sample - involving coin tosses and a phonebook or is it gathered via magazine adverts - if the latter it casts serious doubts on the studies representivenes.) and also how are cultural and age differences accounted for. I suspect the older people get the more they like classical music then rap so could the study just be measuring natural variations in self esteem, introversion and the rest due to age, social class and geographic location. Indeed have these variables, and other potential confounds, been properly regressed out of the statistical model? Also how many people who highly rated each type of music were there and how were the samples weighted to make them roughly equivalent in size for analytical purposes.

Finally what measures of personality were used and how were the genres of music rated? How can the researcher be sure that people understood what the genres were?

Is it perhaps an alternative explantion that people who wish to appear to have high self esteem et al. tend to rate music that they think reflects this highly?

Thats how it should be decided if the study if rubbish.

[MarkMono]

Not everything warrants serious consideration. I'm using my brain for other things, you know.

[Foxglove]

Originally Posted by MarkMono

Not everything warrants serious consideration. I'm using my brain for other things, you know.

Precisely.

Keir - this may be a pet hate of yours but you are defending something here where you have read only what the rest of us have. I think I am entitled to state I find this article daft without knowing the precise nature of the study group which is not mentioned by the BBC. You are often defensive about such threads where you need not be. Commenting on a BBC article does not mean that I have read the actual research. I am surprised you appear to feel quite so personally aggrieved here. However, the limited information afforded to me by the BBC leads me to feel that the research is lacking.

[endless psych]

Originally Posted by Foxglove

And yet someone was paid to research this. It amazes me what random shite is subjected to "research". Isn't this tantamount to saying if your birth sign is Scorpio then you have certain personality traits?

No. The researcher will have likley used far more robust and reliable measures then saying "oh the stars are aligned a certain way you must be a complete twat". It is in no way tantamount to astrology a lot more hard word involving statistics, internal validity and hundreds and hundreds of correlational sums to make sure that each question or rating in a test of personality actually measures what the researcher intends it to.

Sure, for some people this is true but as with star signs and the traits mentioned in this research, the traits are so generalised they could cover anyone and everyone. I don't think it is worth researching to say if you have certain personaility traits you might like certain music as that seems pretty obvious, but very generalised.

The traits are generalised because thats generally (ho-ho) what science does (particularly psychology) and indeed the point is probably so the traits can cover anyone and everyone. However we are unaware of the operational definitions (at present until someone finds the paper (I'm looking but if its just in press its unlikley it'll be online at the OU library)) for each musical genre and each personality trait. Thus we cannot fairly criticise the study on these grounds as we maybe massively misunderstanding, through use of lay knowledge, whats actually being researched.

And what is not clear from the report is how the research dealt with people who have a really varied musical taste, which many people do.

It is reasonably. Personally traits will have been correlated with how highly individuals scored each musical genre. Although without seeing the actual research we won't know how individuals with eclectic or catholic tastes were dealt with. Was just the genre they most consistantly rated higher used? The genre they rated highest? Or was (most likely I would think) the scores that every participant gave every individual correlated with their personality scores.

Also the throwing money at shite research is old hat. Questioning the value of research, unfairly and ill-informed, its worth noting rarely ever happens if the research happens to fit with our common sense view of the world. Although one notable example was when psychologists empirically proved that deeper voices on men are sexier. Damned if you do, damned if you don't. The overall point is though that you have to do.

[MarkMono]

This research is currently being laughed at by every corner of the internet, AltNation actually seems quite sedate for once.