Correlation Between Personality and Music Preferences

1092 Words3 Pages

Have you ever been asked the question, “Why are you listening to that?” At that moment, you sit there and try to come up with a reason to explain your answer. However, the answer always seems to be, “Because I like it.” There’s no particular reason, maybe it’s the artist or maybe it is because you just like the beat. Perhaps it could be the way you are feeling at that particular moment.

Every day people are exposed to music in one form or another, whether they wish to hear it or not. For example, every time someone walks into a store, goes to eat dinner or something as simple as walking into an elevator. Music is always playing in the background. It can actually be somewhat hard to get away from it. Yet the music does not seem to irritate people, if anything we can use the subject of music to learn about someone’s personality. The question, “What kinds of music do you like?” is a universal question. It allows us to explore another person’s musical interest, which would then lead to the basis of a friendship.

Not every person is going to have the same taste in music, but why is it that people find a certain genre more appealing than others? A person’s personality and individuality clearly has a large role Research indicates that there is a definite correlation between personality and music preferences (Rentfrow & Gosling p. 1236-1237, Chamorro-Premuzic & Furnham p. 180-183). Those that enthusiastically chose to involve music in their lives will be more open to whatever music findings they come across in their everyday lives. There are also individuals who can play one or more musical instrument(s) and would be considered music lovers. Most of them have started from a young age and as they grew older would spend huge amounts of...

... middle of paper ...

...ersonality, their self-views and their cognitive abilities. It would also seem that, from knowing someone’s music preferences, we gain insight into their levels of openness, extraversion, intelligence, and even perhaps their political leanings.

Works Cited

Chamorro-Premuzic, Tomas, and Adrian Furnham. "Personality And Music: Can Traits Explain How People Use Music In Everyday Life?." British Journal Of Psychology (London, England: 1953) 98.Pt 2 (2007): 175-185. MEDLINE with Full Text. Web. 11 Feb. 2014.

Rentfrow, Peter J., and Samuel D. Gosling. "The Do Re Mi's Of Everyday Life: The Structure And Personality Correlates Of Music Preferences." Journal Of Personality And Social Psychology 84.6 (2003): 1236-1256. PsycARTICLES. Web. 11 Feb. 2014.

Schapiro, Meyer. "Leonardo and Freud: an art-historical study." Journal of the History of Ideas (1956): 147-178.

More about Correlation Between Personality and Music Preferences

Open Document