Personal musical
tastes may fluctuate over time, but scientists think that a person’s empathy
levels and cognitive (thinking) styles can predict a person’s preferred music
genre. In other words, music is a mirror of the self. Music is an expression of
who we are emotionally, socially, and cognitively, maintains Dr. Jason Rentfrow
at the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom, author of a 2003 study in
the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology (Medical Daily, July 27,
2015). But we knew this anyway because this study is more than 10 years old.
However, a new study, undertaken this year, confirms the results.
The 2003 study found
that people who were open to new experiences tended to choose music that was
from the blues, jazz, classical, and folk genres. Extraverts tended to choose
music such as pop, soundtracks, religious, soul, funk, electronic, and dance.
The 2015 study
investigated cognitive styles. Over 4,000 participants were asked to take a
selection of psychology-based questionnaires. The participants were
subsequently asked to listen to, and rate, 50 musical pieces from 26 genres.
Researchers from the
University of Cambridge’s department of psychology tested the theory of empathizing-systemizing
to test cognitive styles. Empathizers are people who want to understand the
thoughts and feelings of others, which means that they react emotionally and
physiologically to music that they listen to or perform. Systemizers are people
who want to analyze and deconstruct sonic features (sounds) and interpret how
detailed elements in a song relate to it as a whole when they listen to or play
music.
The findings revealed
that high empathizers (partipants who scored highly in the series of
psychological tests) tended to choose music that was mellow (R&B-rhythm
& blues, soft rock, and adult contemporary genres), as well as
‘unpretentious’ music (country, folk, and singer/songwriter genres), and
contemporary music (electronica, Latin, acid jazz, and Euro pop). Empathizers
did not like punk and heavy metal genres.
The most chosen songs
by high empathizers (of the 50 songs played to them) were:
‘Hallelujah’ by Jeff
Buckley
‘Come Away With Me’ by Norah Jones
‘All of Me’ by Billie Holliday, and
‘Crazy Little Thing Called Love’ by Queen.
Systemizers tended to
choose music that was intense and ‘sophisticated’ jazz (i.e. complex and
avant-garde jazz). They also preferred music with a high degree of cerebral
depth and complexity (that made them think about the lyrics or musical
composition).
The most chosen songs
by high systemizers (of the 50 songs played to them) were:
‘Concerto in C’ by
Antonio Vivaldi
‘Etude Opus 65 No. 3’ by Alexander Scriabin
‘God Save the
Queen’ by The Sex Pistols, and
‘Enter Sandman’ by Metallica.
The researchers
believe the findings on cognitive styles are ‘true and better predictors of
musical tastes than previous predictors.’ They are particularly interesting in
exploring the links between medicine and music. Next for the researchers is to
test whether music with emotional depth can actually increase empathy, which
could be used for music therapy.
Baron-Choen S, Kosinski M, Greenberg DM et al. Musical
preferences are linked to cognitive styles. PLOS ONE. 2015.
Gosling SD and Rentgrow PJ. The do re mi's of everyday
life: the structure and personality correlates of music preferences. Journal of
Personality and Social Psychology. 2003.
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