Should People Judge You By The Music You Listen To?

US They Already Do.... 25/08/09

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Should people judge you by the music you listen to?

According to researches at the University of Cambridge, they do.

Researchers found that people regularly make assumptions about people's personalities, values, social class and even their ethnicity, based on their musical preferences.

For example:

Rock fans are commonly held to be rebellious and artistic, but emotionally unstable.
Classical music-lovers are seen as personable and intellectual, but unattractive and a bit boring.
Jazz fans are viewed as friendly, emotionally stable people with a limited sense of responsibility.
Rap fans were viewed as more hostile, but were seen as energetic and athletic.

The studies have been led by Dr. Jason Rentfrow, who is conducting ongoing research into the links between personality and musical taste.

"Humans, as social beings, develop techniques that help them to predict what another person is going to be like from the moment they first meet," Dr Rentfrow said. "Because we can't carry out a full psychological assessment on the spot, we ask them questions which help us to build up a picture of their personality. This research suggests that, even though our assumptions may not be accurate, we get a very strong impression about someone when we ask them what music they like."

The Research

Dr Rentfrow asked subjects to consider six broad genre:

rock
pop
electronica
rap
classical and
jazz.

The participants were asked to rate fans of each genre according to a set of personality dimensions widely used by psychologists and known as the "Big Five".

Extraversion (associated with sociability, energy and enthusiasm);
Agreeableness (warmth, friendliness, compassion);
Conscientiousness (duty, responsibility, self-discipline);
Neuroticism (anxiety, stress, impulsiveness) and
Openness (curiosity, intellect, creativity).

"It is now common practice to list your favourite bands on sites like MySpace or Facebook," Dr Rentfrow added. "This research shows that in doing so, many of us are also making clear public statements of who we are and how we should be perceived, whether we are conscious of that or not."

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