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Personality Secrets in Your Mp3 Player
Once past saying 'hello' and 'how are you?' to someone you've just met, what is next? How do we make friends and get to know other people? Psychologists have talked about the importance of body language, physical appearance and clothing but they've not been so keen on what we actually talk about. A recent study put participants in same-sex and opposite-sex pairings and told them to get to know each other over 6 weeks (Rentfrow & Gosling, 2006). Analysing the results, they found the most popular topic of conversation was music. What is it about music that's so useful when we first meet someone and what kind of information can we extract from the music another person likes?
"how good is music as a
measure of personality?"
The number of people who talked about music was surprisingly high.
In the first week on average 58% of the pairs discussed music
compared to 37% of all the other categories of conversation
combined. Other categories included books, movies, TV, football and
clothes.Why then do we use music as a first port of call in getting to know another person? We probably think that music is indirectly telling us something about the other person's personality. For this reason, the second question this study tried to answer was: how good is music as a measure of personality?
Top 10 personalities
To measure this, participants were asked to judge people's personality solely on their top 10 list of songs.
"...a person's
openness to experience was best communicated by their top 10 list
of songs."
This was compared to participants results on a standard type of
personality test measuring the big five
personality traits: openness to experience, extraversion,
agreeableness, conscientiousness and emotional stability. 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.What some music preferences mean for personality:
- Likes vocals: extraverted
- Likes country: emotionally stable. On the face of it, this is bizarre really because country music is all about heartache. Either the emotionally stable are attracted to country music or it has a calming effect on the unstable!
- Likes jazz: intellectual
"...this finding
might not hold in different age-groups."
One really important caveat for this study was that the average age
of the participants was around 18 so this finding might not hold in
different age-groups. My experience is young people talk about
music much more than older people. This raises the question of
what, for example, might be the most common topic of conversations
for other age-groups getting acquainted. Any suggestions?Despite this limitation it seems that talking about music might be a very powerful way to make a connection with another person.
» This post is part of a series on the psychology of relationships.
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References
Rentfrow, P.J., & Gosling, S.D. (2006). Message in a Ballad. The Role of Music Preferences in Interpersonal Perception. Psychological Science, 17(3), 236-242.
Labels: Music, Relationships
37 comments
seems plausible, good writeup.
Suggestions for other age groups:
People in their later 20s may exhibit tendencies to listen to music that they did when they were younger. It would be interesting to know if tendency to prefer music of another decade versus current music would be a good measure of something like flexibilty, adventurousness or fondness for a particular time in their life. Perhaps a percentage mixture of new vs. old music in the top 10 would be a good predictor of adaptability, happiness in the current era of their life or how nostalgic they are in general.
I would also be keen to see a measure of how important music choices were to the survey participants. Would strength of music choice correlate with power of the music measure to predict the personality outcome?
I've been living in New York City for years and have had over 20 roommates - most of them are still my good friends.
When interviewing people for a room in the shared apartment the first question I always asked was about what music they liked. This has always been the most helpful in weeding out the freaks.
Concerning generational topics of get-to-know-you discussion, elderly folks (60+?) commonly talk about their physical problems, medications, surgeries, etc.
I think people that don't know how to genuinely interact with other human beings tend to focus on things that they have in common such as movies, music, and TV shows. When the truth is that a lot of people have a lot in common, if you'd only stop talking about the boring exposure related categories. The honest truth about music tastes and movie tastes is that they aren't a reflection of your personality, but a reflection of your exposure. You say jazz means intellectual. Have you ever questioned the idea that perhaps "intellectuals" listen to jazz as a product of their maybe having studied the arts more than listeners of other music, as those who have studied the arts more tend to know more about jazz. Younger demographics are going to know more about indie music, for instance. And country music says nothing about anyone's personality. I know some country listeners that are anything but emotionally stable. More often than not, liking country music is a sign that the person was raised in a rural area, or their parents listened to country music. Exposure is the key factor in what type of music a person likes and so pegging people by what music they like is, for all intents and purposes, saying nothing. Music isn't yet individualistic enough to be considered a real showing of any type of distinct personality, if anything is even able to show that.
The article seems incomplete.. what are the findings? did you only look at genres and lyrics or no lyrics? how big was the sample size? controls?
so.. because i'm not a fan of modern country music... and not big into jazz.,, and think lyrics get in the way... does that mean i'm an introverted unstable cretin?
i feel like i'm left hanging. very interesting concept.. but it leaves me hanging
Thanks to everyone for their comments so far - really interesting responses.
Cira, you suggest a good extension of the research. It's going to make a difference how much I like a particular type of music. People probably didn't identify with all their top 10 tracks equally.
Anonymous #1, #2 & #3, thanks and good points!
Anonymous #4, you point out some sensible reasons why personality and music preference might not be connected. These are valid criticims of the study - certainly the kinds of criticims that research psychologists are battling with all the time.
prmths, I know what you mean about being left hanging, the problem for me is there's a trade-off between readability and putting in all the details. But, for many who are interested:
"did you only look at genres and lyrics or no lyrics?"
Two types of information about the songs were collected, the genre along with specific features of the song. E.g. what was the tempo?
"how big was the sample size?"
74 undergraduate students at the University of Texas: 40.5% women.
"controls?"
Because of the nature of the design there can't really be a control group. The nearest thing is that 8 different observers were used to rate individuals on the personality measures based on their top 10 songs
"so.. because i'm not a fan of modern country music..."
These are just three examples the authors of the study cite, they are not meant to be exhaustive. Like you, though, I wish they had given a bit more detail here.
Anyway, hope that satisfies your curiosity a little!
I like the concept but I think that it is missing a few things as well. I know that my top 10 change depending on my mood. It has also been my experience that people in age groups will talk about what is most concerning for them. For instance, mid-20's would talk about work/marraige, mid-30's would talk about kids/sleep and ect.
You might also consider when music became important to the interviewee.
Music became important to me quite a bit later in life where as others in my age group started earlier and have very strong links to music they listened to in a specific time period.
This study sheds some light onto the popularity of myspace and other music-centric social networks:
1. social network participants socialize with others, exploring the potential for a friendship
2. the most popular subject about which to socialize is music
3. these networks are focused on bringing people together around the music they love.
Link to article at Blackwells yields "Requested article does not exist on the system." I'd be interested to read the original.
I think it'd be interesting to see a larger sample, spanning more age groups, before drawing any conclusions.
I find the comment equating jazz music with intellectualism troubling - a re-surfacing of the old equation of art music (jazz, classical) as high-brow and more worthy, versus popular music as low-brow and less-worthy. I'd suggest, especially in such a young sample, that people with aspirations to be considered intellectual might adopt jazz music for reasons other than the aesthetic.
Cira's comment about people's mixtures of old and new music would be interesting to measure, though a couple of points I'd suggest could be important: exposure to new music can depend a lot on environment (e.g. I live in a major city, I have a choice of lots of radio stations, and a high-speed internet connection) but living in rural Australia, you surely would not have the same exposure to new music.
Country music is a funny one: I'm a musician, and I recall someone joking that "every musician turns to country music eventually" - it's certainly been true in my case. I've always enjoyed a bit of melancholia in my music, so country can be a good fit there... that's my best guess.
I very much enjoyed the finidings of this article. As a young professional in a new city, I can certainly identify with the results, and find them to be meaningful.
As to the objection including the possibility that country music could imply a rural upbringing: Being raised in such an environment as important implications on world view, and can be intricately tied to one's personality. It's very difficult to determine where one factor ends and another begins.
I'd be interested to see a sharing of information with the popular 'Pandora' internet service, which calls itself the 'music genome project': they collect very in-depth information about specific songs and a vcariety of criteria.
Thanks again to everyone who has commented. Some solid criticisms of the study along with good suggestions for variations and improvements.
A few comments are pointing out the problems with making shortcut-type links between types of music and particular attributes of personality. Of course, people often don't want to be stereotyped because of the type of music they listen to. But just because we don't like it, that doesn't mean it's not being done all the time, and, indeed, might even be accurate to a greater or lesser degree.
Psychology tends to (intentionally) iron out certain individual differences in favour of general trends. And it's these individual differences that make psychology difficult and life interesting.
Fortune had an interesting article last fall. it included comments from the author of this study.
Just discovered Pandora thanks to the comment above.
Quote from their site: "Can you help me discover more music that I'll like? Those questions often evolved into great conversations. Each friend told us their favorite artists and songs, explored the music we suggested, gave us feedback, and we in turn made new suggestions. Everybody started joking that we were now their personal DJs."
Gave it a try and it's pretty impressive...
Wasn't that a sitcom joke a few years ago? "My TiVo thinks I am a gay, black man."
You can't tell everything about a person ( I know plenty of Republicans who listen to NPR stations for the music - because it's just better - but you can't extract their politics from that ) but you can tell a lot.
It may not be a litmus test but it's at least a broad indicator.
i think there are other factors to be considered, such as surroundings, times, family, and even the situation of body.
time is a important factors. a girl loves a pop super star's songs just because others love. all girls think the star is cool.
about family, take me for instance, my dad loves Beijing opera, and now i too. so,what that is mean.
ok,that is my thoughts.
Interesting topic. Personally, my preference in genre changes depending on my mood at the time. I have such diverse and varied taste in music... I'm sure I don't have a multiple personality disorder...
Nigel, yes, the idea that mood will affect preferences is a good criticism. In previous research, however, they found that people were pretty reliable when it came to indicating the genres they preferred. In other words, they reported the same interests at different time-points.
You're right, though, there's going to be some effect for mood. Still, it seems people generally know what they like, whatever mood they're in.
A possible reason this might be most accurate for younger people is that after about age 40, people start to lose the ability to experiment with what music they listen to, and they become limited mostly to listening to what they always have enjoyed.
I found the article really interesting but I'm not completely convinced you can judge a persons personality on what music they listen to. People may say they listen to something for social acceptance and it may not reflect their true feelings.
I realise this shows they "follow the crowd" but it dosen't give us an accurate interpretation of their personality.
I must say that whenever I meet someone new, the first topic of conversation is almost always music. It is something that everyone can relate to, unless they do not listen to music, in which case I seem to be unable to relate to them at first. Music shapes peoples lives and you can tell a lot from a person and how they are feeling at a particular time, because obviously a person isn't always listening to the same song/artist/band/genre of music. I like this study, I'd like to recreate it to see if the results are similar in Essex, England to that of Texas. Also to see if people of my generation have varying results (17 years).
Hello to you three anonymouses and thanks for your comments!
A question for the study is that if all of the partipants come from USA?If the answer is yes,the findinds may not hold in different area group.
Letiantu, I carried out some follow-up work myself which found similar results in a sample from the US, the UK and other countries - reported here
I carried out a study in the UK in 1982 "Popular Music and Personality" as my honours dissertation, apart from using the Eysenck Pesonality Inventory I also used the Machiavellian Scale -for measure of conservatism and I also looked at music preferences with a sample of all ages from 18 - 65.
Not surprisingly the older a person was the more'conservative' they were in their personality profile, but what was really interesting was you really can effectively make a sound judgement about someone's pesonality based on their record collection(sorry they are big round plastic discs with grooves which reporduce recorded music).
As Shakespeare's Orsinio (12th Night) observes -"if music be the food of love, play on" Its defintiely the case that music seems to meet an important psychological need in all of us. And represents something which can be effectively read and understood by another.
So next time you get taken home for a night of blissful passion - run your fingers through the CD collection first, just to make sure!!!
Likes country: emotionally stable. On the face of it, this is bizarre really because country music is all about heartache. Either the emotionally stable are attracted to country music or it has a calming effect on the unstable
I found this comment, condescending and stereotypical as I personally like country music that tells an up beat stories. Also I happen to like most music that conveys a neutral or upbeat message.
I am some what of an introvert, as I can get along quite nicely with out seeing any people for a week or so.
Such methods are for finding an average value. Personally I can live well for weeks without any music. I like opera and feel bad when forced to hear modern crap in public places. I believe that I'm not an emotionally stable person.
Current personal experience: When I had a job and things were going well for me I'd listen to minimalist techno in the morning to relax. Now that I'm job seeking and facing a cold winter with empty pockets I find minimalist techno heightens my anxiety. Fascinating subject would love to know more.
Well, music helps some people to meet each other. It's a pleasant form of attentions.
Groups defined by music is both a good and bad thing. I have started in a new school and it is one of the first thing you talk about about. Because of this these groups that barely socalize with eachother form. Rockers stick with rockers, rave with rave ect. Differnt musical tastes also cause groups to dress different, but as someone who's best friends from childhood no longer listen to the same genres as myself i often wonder am i missing out on great friendships because of the difference in musical taste and if i were to meet my best friends now rather than early in life would we have become such good friends or even friends at all!
Anon (just above), I think you raise a really good point about how we are quick to make judgements about people on the basis of their musical preferences, especially when we are young. I'd guess (although I don't know) that this decreases with age. Young people perhaps have more invested in their musical preferences as their identities are more fluid.
I know it's a cliche but there really are only two types of music: good and bad. There's something to love in (almost) every genre.
In my opinion, individuals listen to different types of music because it resonates with them better by relation. I tend to like music which I can relate to; afterall, one can percieve any song in a way in which it relates to them.
There are tons of other factors such as the majority of music you listened to as a child, that would deeply affect your preference of the music you like as an adult.
As I said, there is a countless ammount of other different factors that play into the music you like.
I enjoyed the article, and I generally agree with everything that was stated. But I think there's always going to be more to it in summing up a person based on the music they listen to.
they shoulda analyzed more types of music. like rock music! what does that say about me?
ya...they should. I was hoping to find a connection with pop/rock/R&B music.
Not long ago, I read an article in which the author declared that our music taste is determined even before we are born!
Anonymous #3 suggested that the living environment affects the genre we listen but that wasn't true for me. I grew up in a family where country music was played non-stop and I hated it since the day i heard it. I am into rock/R&B.
"we are quick to make judgements about people on the basis of their musical preferences, especially when we are young. I'd guess (although I don't know) that this decreases with age."
No, it doesn't decrease with age. If anything I judge people on what they listen to more now than ever, and I am 46. I do the playlist.com thing and am religious about changing my music weekly. I am bored to death with the 70s, 80s, and 90s and am looking for something fresh! I will spend hours looking for a new favorite song. Here is my current playlist:
http://www.playlist.com/node/31885291
Two things:
1) I have never met anyone who has said they don't like music. I've met numerous people who have said they don't like reading, and a couple who have said they don't like art. My mom and dad, in their 60s, are happy to share their musical tastes. Music truly does seem to be a sort of universal human impulse.
2) I agree that as I've gotten older (I am 36) I tend to listen to the same music over and over. I do have to make an effort to go find new music and artists. Pandora really is fantastic. Just surfing music videos at YouTube is fun too. The other day I found Rihanna's "Don't stop the music" and it made me feel young - unlike Madonna, who makes me feel old....
Cheers