Everyone listens to music, but we don’t all enjoy listening to the same songs. What determines the types of music someone likes? People also seem to use music to communicate information about themselves: Some people listen to music loudly so that passersby can hear, and others dress in ways that show their affiliation with a particular musical style. What do people’s music preferences reveal about themselves? My research on the social psychology of music aims to answer those sorts of questions. My research is based on the idea that people seek out situations and environments that reflect and satisfy their psychological needs. For example, people who are extraverted enjoy the company of others and therefore seek out various sorts of social situations, whereas people who are shy feel anxious around individuals they don’t know and therefore seek situations with people they know well. So given that our personalities influence the types of situations we seek out and avoid, it seems reasonable to suppose that our personalities also influence which types of music we seek out and which types we avoid. In 2003, Sam Gosling and I conducted a few studies on music and personality and discovered several significant associations. For example, and as shown below in Figure 1, people with strong preferences for classical, jazz, and folk music (dubbed Reflective & Complex) tend to have personality traits associated with openness (e.g., creativity, imagination) and verbal ability, and people with strong preferences for popular styles of music (Upbeat & Conventional) tend to have traits associated with extraversion (sociability, talkativeness), agreeableness (friendliness, warmth), conscientiousness (reliability, dependability), and low levels of openness (conventionality, dogmatism), verbal, and analytic ability. Music & Personality
 
UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE Faculty of Social & Political Sciences Department of Social & Developmental Psychology Figure 2. Observer accuracy profiles for music preferences and previous zero-acquaintance research. Figure 1. Personality profiles for each of the four music-preference dimensions. Considering that there are links between music preferences and personality, it is reasonable to suppose that people’s music preferences might reveal valid information about who they are. With that in mind, my colleagues and I conducted a few studies concerned with personality judgements based on music preferences. In one study, we invited approximately 70 people to complete a set of personality questionnaires and asked them to generate a list of their top-10 favorite songs. We then obtained participants’ songs and compiled them onto CDs, so that we had CDs with each participant’s favorite songs. Next, we invited a different group of people to listen to each CD and asked them about their impressions of the people who generated the top-10 lists. The results suggested that people are able to form accurate impressions of others solely on the basis of their music preferences. As depicted in the left set of blue bars in Figure 2, the participants formed reasonably accurate impressions about extraversion, agreeableness, neuroticism (emotional instability), and openness. Furthermore, when we compared the accuracy of the music-based impressions with the accuracy of impressions based on physical appearance or brief conversations (shown in the right set of green bars in Figure 2), we discovered that impressions based on music preferences are in some cases as accurate or more accurate than the impressions formed when people actually meet face-to-face. Given that people can make accurate personality judgements on the basis of nothing more than a person’s favorite songs, my colleagues and I conducted another series of studies to examine the processes underlying music-based personality judgements. Specifically, we investigated the stereotypes people have about fans of various music genres. One question those studies addressed was whether people associate similar psychological characteristics with fans of a given music genre. Another question was whether there is a kernel of truth to any of the music stereotypes. To answer those questions we recruited a couple hundred people and asked them to rate the prototypical fan of a particular music genre. In total, we examined ratings of 14 prototypical music fans. Participants rated the prototypical fans on an assortment of characteristics, from personality to physical attractiveness, to alcohol and drug preferences. The results showed that people have very clearly defined stereotypes about various music fans. The results plotted in Figure 3 provide an idea of what some of the stereotypes are about. For example, people believe that fans of classical music are conservative, smart, religious, artistic, but not athletic or physically attractive, whereas fans of rap music are thought to be liberal, fairly attractive, not particularly religious, but very athletic. In a follow-up study we compared the characteristics of the music stereotypes with the characteristics of actual music fans. That allowed us to determine whether any of the stereotypes have a kernel of truth. The results suggested that, in some cases, the stereotypes converged with the characteristics of music fans. For example, the stereotype about jazz fans is that they’re open minded, relaxed, artistic, and imaginative, and fans of jazz music tend to have those characteristics. Figure 3. Stereotypes about fans of four music genres.
Representative Publications Rentfrow, P. J. & McDonald, J. (in press). Preferences, Personality, and Emotion. In P. N. Juslin and J. Sloboda (Eds.) Handbook of Music and Emotion. New York: Oxford University Press. [email me for preprint] Rentfrow, P. J., McDonald, J. A., & Oldmeadow, J. A. (2009). You are what you listen to: Young people’s stereotypes about music fans. Group Processes and Intergroup Relations, 12, 329-344. Rentfrow, P. J., & Gosling, S. D. (2007). The content and validity of stereotypes about fans of 14 music genres. Psychology of Music, 35, 306-326. pdf Rentfrow, P. J., & Gosling, S. D. (2006). Message in a ballad: The role of music preferences in interpersonal perception. Psychological Science, 17, 236-242. pdf Rentfrow, P. J., & Gosling, S. D. (2003). The do-re-mi’s of everyday life: The structure and personality correlates of music preferences. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 84, 1236-1256. pdfMusic & Personality_files/Rentfrow%20%26%20Gosling--music%20stereotypes.pdfMusic & Personality_files/Rentfrow%20%26%20Gosling--psy%20sci.pdfMusic & Personality_files/Rentfrow%20%26%20Gosling--jpsp.pdfshapeimage_13_link_0shapeimage_13_link_1shapeimage_13_link_2
In general, it appears as though the music people enjoy listening to is, in part, based on their psychological qualities. Indeed, our research suggests that our music preferences are manifestations of our personalities. Of course, demographic variables like age and gender play important roles, but our recent work suggests that the effect of personality on music preferences is as strong as the effects of demographics. Our research also suggests that music is an effective vehicle for communicating information about personality. Thus, knowing what kind of music someone likes provides useful clues about who they are. Currently, my colleagues and I are developing new ways to measure music preferences that will shed light on whether personality is linked to preferences for particular musical characteristics, like mode, instrumentation, or timbre. We are also beginning to examine the links between personality and preferences for other entertainment media, such as film, television, and literature.
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