How do you choose the music you listen to?

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.

http://www.medicaldaily.com/psychology-music-choice-cognitive-thinking-influences-preference-music-genre-empathy-344774

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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