Intellectual Thinking Impacts Inclination For Music Genre By Via Compassion

Within the few minutes it takes for a song to play, we decide whether we want to press repeat, next, or even buy it. The songs on our iPod reflect more than just the artists we like, they provide a small window into how our brains work. According to a recent study published in the journal PLOS ONE, although musical tastes may fluctuate over time, our empathy levels and cognitive styles can predict our musical preferences.


"This line of research highlights how music is a mirror of the self. Music is an expression of who we are emotionally, socially, and cognitively,” said Dr. Jason Rentfrow, senior study author, in the news release.


Generally, many people believe musical preferences reflect characteristics such as age, personality, and values. A 2003 study published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology found people who are open to new experiences tend to prefer music from the blues, jazz, classical, and folk genres. Those who are extraverted and “agreeable” tend to prefer music such as pop, soundtrack, religious, soul, funk, electronic, and dance. While these studies prove personality does influence musical tastes, Rentfrow and his colleagues at the University of Cambridge in the UK are curious as to whether there are other psychological mechanisms that come into play when it comes to musical preference.

The researchers investigated the cognitive and affective bases for music choice by asking a large cohort of people to report their reactions to musical stimuli in multiple studies. Over 4,000 participants were recruited mainly through the myPersonality Facebook app. The app asked Facebook users to take a selection of psychology-based questionnaires, and the results were allowed to be placed on their profiles for other users to see (take test here).


The participants were then asked to listen to and rate 50 musical pieces. Library examples of musical stimuli from 26 genres and subgenres were used to reduce the probability that the participants would have any personal or cultural association with the piece of music. During these experiments, the researchers tested the theory of empathizing-systemizing. Empathizers were defined as those who have a drive to understand the thoughts and feelings of others, meaning they react emotionally and physiologically to music and while performing it. Systemizers were more likely to be analytical, meaning they analyze and deconstruct sonic features and interpret how detailed elements in a song relate to it as a whole when perceiving and interpreting music.


The findings revealed people who score high on empathy tended to prefer mellow music (R&B, soft rock, and adult contemporary genres), unpretentious music (country, folk, and singer/songwriter genres) and contemporary music (electronica, Latin, acid jazz, and Euro pop). Empathizers showed a disdain for punk and heavy metal. Contrastingly, people who scored high on systemizing tended to prefer intense music, but disliked mellow and pretentious musical styles. Even within specified genres, empathizers preferred mellow, unpretentious jazz, while systemizers preferred intense, sophisticated (complex and avant-garde) jazz. They also preferred music with a high degree of cerebral depth and complexity.