Psychology of music preference
The psychology of music preference is the study of the psychological factors behind peoples' different music preferences. One study found that after researching through studies from the past 50 years, there are more than 500 functions for music. Music is heard by people daily in many parts of the world, and affects people in various ways from emotional regulation to cognitive development, along with providing a means for self-expression. Music training has been shown to help improve intellectual development and ability, though minimal connection has been found as to how it affects emotion regulation. Numerous studies have been conducted to show that individual personality can have an effect on music preference, though a recent meta-analysis has shown that personality in itself explains little variance in music preferences. These studies are not limited to American culture, as they have been conducted with significant results in countries all over the world, including Japan, Germany, Spain, and Brazil.
Personality and music preference
Personality
The relationship between musical preference and personality has remained a long-standing topic of contention for researchers due to the variability in results and the low-predictive power that personality has demonstrated on music preferences. A meta-analysis conducted by Schäfer and Mehlorn, of previous studies trying to determine if experience seeking or any of the Big-Five personality traits predicted musical preferences, revealed that the correlation coefficient between music genre and personality traits possessed a magnitude greater than 0.1 in only 6 out of the 30 studies they reviewed. Openness to experience was found to have the strongest correlation with a preference for three musical styles; however, this correlation was still relatively minor. The vast majority of the correlation coefficients were almost zero.Recent research has used data from music streaming sites instead of self-reported data to show that music genres and the user's listening habits can be used to predict the Big Five personality traits. In a study conducted in 2020, researchers analyzed data from Spotify users and mapped the Big Five personality traits to different genres, moods, and derived metrics such as the number of playlists, diversity in song choice, and repetition of listening habits. Results showed an increase in correlation. Openness had a positive correlation with atmospheric, reggae, and folk music, while conscientiousness had a negative correlation with rock and "Energizing" songs such as "Happy" by Pharrell Williams. In terms of derived metrics, emotional stability had a negative correlation with the listener's skip rate, and openness had a positive correlation with their song discovery rate.
One shortcoming in attempting to establish a predictive relationship between music and personality is likely a result of researchers' tendency to utilize overly homogenized musical genres, failing to account for the variance within musical genres. In a study conducted by Brisson and Bianchi, participants were provided a musical taste inventory and asked to rate their musical genre and sub-genre preferences. For example, electronic music is considered a genre and house music is a sub-genre of electronic music. Results indicated a high degree of variance between participant genre and sub-genre preferences. Enjoying one genre or sub-genre within a broader genre category often failed to consistently predict ratings for related genres and sub-genres with another related genre or sub-genre. Ultimately, only two consistent associations between genres and sub-genres were found, calling into question the reliability of musical genres in research. However, the investigation into this relationship between the influence of personality on music preference remains ongoing despite these genre-based limitations in methodology and past discrepancies in research results.
Various questionnaires have been created to both measure the big five personality traits and musical preferences. The majority of studies attempting to find the correlation between personality and musical preferences administered questionnaires to measure both traits. Others used questionnaires to determine personality traits, and then asked participants to rate musical excerpts on scales such as liking, perceived complexity, emotions felt, and more.
In general, the plasticity traits affect music preference more than the stability traits, but each trait is still worth discussing. The personality traits have also been shown to correlate significantly with the emotional effect music has on people. Individual personality differences can help predict the emotional intensity and valence derived from music.
Big Five personality traits
Openness to experience
Of all the traits, openness to experience has been shown to have the greatest effect upon genre preference. In general, those rated high in openness to experience prefer music categorized as more complex and novel, such as classical, jazz, and eclecticism, as well as intense and rebellious music. In the study, reflective and complex genres included classical, blues, jazz, and folk music, while intense and rebellious genres included rock, alternative, and heavy metal music. One of the facets of openness to experience is aesthetic appreciation, which is how researchers generally explain the high positive correlation between openness and liking complex music.One study looking at how personality traits affect music-induced emotion found that, of all the traits, openness to experience was the best predictor of higher emotionally intense reactions to sad and slow music. The most common feelings described from sad music were nostalgia, peacefulness, and wonder, and openness to experience correlated positively with all these feelings. Sad music has also been theorized to allow for greater experience of aesthetic experiences and beauty. Furthermore, individuals scoring high on openness to experience show a preference for diverse musical styles, but do not prefer popular forms of contemporary music, indicating that there are limits to this openness. However, this is only true up to a certain point, as another study looked at music's ability to produce "chills" in the listeners. Although this study found that openness was the best predictor of genre preference, there is no way to use openness to experience to predict whether one will get chills from music or not. Instead, the only measure for that was frequency of listening to music and the self-designated value of the importance of music in one's life.
Another study examined how openness to experience and frequency of listening are related and how they affect music preference. While listening to classical music excerpts, those rated high in openness tended to decrease in liking music faster during repeated listenings, as opposed to those scoring low in openness, who tended to like music more with repeated plays. This suggests novelty in music is an important quality for people high in openness to experience.
One study had people take a personality test before and after listening to classical music with and without written lyrics in front of them. Music both with and without lyrics showed some effect on people's self-reported personality traits, most significantly in terms of openness to experience, which showed a significant increase. Instead of personality affecting music preference, here classical music altered the assessment of their own personalities and made people assess themselves as more open to experience.
Openness to experience is also positively correlated with frequency of intellectual or cognitive use of music, such as analyzing complex musical compositions. Furthermore, individuals more open to experience prefer a greater number of melodic themes in a work of music.
Conscientiousness
is negatively correlated with intense and rebellious music, such as rock and heavy metal music. While previous studies have found an association between conscientiousness and emotional regulation, these results do not apply cross-culturally—specifically, researchers did not find this association in Malaysia.Extroversion
Extroversion is another good predictor of music genre preference and music use. Energetic extroverts have been linked to preferences in happy, upbeat and conventional music, as well as energetic and rhythmic music, such as rap, hip hop, soul, electronic, and dance music. Additionally, extroverts tend to listen to music more and have background music present in their lives more often. One study compared introverts and extroverts to see who would be more easily distracted by background music with and without lyrics. It was assumed that since extroverts listen to background music more they would be able to tune it out better, but that was proved untrue. No matter how much music people listen to they are still equally affected and distracted by music with lyrics. Another study found that extroverts liked more types of music compared to those who are introverts. It was found that extroverted individuals preferred popular/rock music compared to introverted individuals. Cheerful music with fast tempos, many melodic themes, and vocals are also preferred by extroverts. They are more likely than others to listen to music in the background while doing other activities, such as running, being with friends, or studying. This group also tends to use music to counter the monotony of everyday tasks, such as ironing. In a Turkish study, researchers found that extroverts preferred rock, pop, and rap because these genres facilitated dance and movement.Another study examined music teachers and music therapists, assuming that people who like and study music would be more extroverted. The results showed that music teachers were definitely higher in extroversion than the general public. Music therapists were also higher on extroversion than introversion, though they scored significantly lower than the teachers. Differences can probably be attributed to teaching being a profession more dependent on extroversion.