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  • Music Tastes Link To Personality - Press Release

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    Heavy metal fans are gentle, indie music listeners lack self-esteem and lovers of pop music are uncreative, according to research. The study on the links between personality and music taste has been conducted by a psychology professor over the last three years. He found that country and western fans are hard-working, rap fans outgoing and jazz and classical music supporters are innovative and bursting with self-confidence. Contrary to the stereotype, heavy metal fans are gentle and at ease with themselves but they tend not to be hardworking. Those who listen to heavy metal and classical music share character traits, according to the research, of being creative, at ease and introverted. But classical music fans have high self-esteem while heavy rock fans lack self-belief. Heriot-Watt University psychology professor Adrian North's research into how music taste reflects personality and impacts on relationships is continuing. He said: "We have always suspected a link between music taste and personality. This is the first time that we've been able to look at it in real detail. No-one has ever done this on this scale before. People do actually define themselves through music and relate to other people through it but we haven't known in detail how music is connected to identity." Prof North said the research could have many uses in marketing, adding: "If you know a person's music preference you can tell what kind of person they are, who to sell to. There are obvious implications for the music industry who are are worried about declining CD sales." More than 36,000 people around the globe took part in the survey, the biggest of its type ever conducted. They were asked to rate 104 musical styles in the study and were also questioned on aspects of their personality.

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    Heavy metal fans are gentle, indie music listeners lack self-esteem and lovers of pop music are uncreative, according to research. The study on the links between personality and music taste has been conducted by a psychology professor over the last three years. He found that country and western fans are hard-working, rap fans outgoing and jazz and classical music supporters are innovative and bursting with self-confidence. Contrary to the stereotype, heavy metal fans are gentle and at ease with themselves but they tend not to be hardworking. Those who listen to heavy metal and classical music share character traits, according to the research, of being creative, at ease and introverted. But classical music fans have high self-esteem while heavy rock fans lack self-belief. Heriot-Watt University psychology professor Adrian North's research into how music taste reflects personality and impacts on relationships is continuing. He said: "We have always suspected a link between music taste and personality. This is the first time that we've been able to look at it in real detail. No-one has ever done this on this scale before. People do actually define themselves through music and relate to other people through it but we haven't known in detail how music is connected to identity." Prof North said the research could have many uses in marketing, adding: "If you know a person's music preference you can tell what kind of person they are, who to sell to. There are obvious implications for the music industry who are are worried about declining CD sales." More than 36,000 people around the globe took part in the survey, the biggest of its type ever conducted. They were asked to rate 104 musical styles in the study and were also questioned on aspects of their personality.

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    8K views3 pages

    Music Tastes Link To Personality - Press Release

    Uploaded by

    adam.morrison
    Heavy metal fans are gentle, indie music listeners lack self-esteem and lovers of pop music are uncreative, according to research. The study on the links between personality and music taste has been conducted by a psychology professor over the last three years. He found that country and western fans are hard-working, rap fans outgoing and jazz and classical music supporters are innovative and bursting with self-confidence. Contrary to the stereotype, heavy metal fans are gentle and at ease with themselves but they tend not to be hardworking. Those who listen to heavy metal and classical music share character traits, according to the research, of being creative, at ease and introverted. But classical music fans have high self-esteem while heavy rock fans lack self-belief. Heriot-Watt University psychology professor Adrian North's research into how music taste reflects personality and impacts on relationships is continuing. He said: "We have always suspected a link between music taste and personality. This is the first time that we've been able to look at it in real detail. No-one has ever done this on this scale before. People do actually define themselves through music and relate to other people through it but we haven't known in detail how music is connected to identity." Prof North said the research could have many uses in marketing, adding: "If you know a person's music preference you can tell what kind of person they are, who to sell to. There are obvious implications for the music industry who are are worried about declining CD sales." More than 36,000 people around the globe took part in the survey, the biggest of its type ever conducted. They were asked to rate 104 musical styles in the study and were also questioned on aspects of their personality.

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    of 3

    Listening to Latino or bopping along to some Indie Rock in your spare time,

    may say more about you than the student gap year you spent in South
    America or the long summers spent singing along at rain soaked festivals.

    A researcher from Heriot-Watt University has found that strong personality


    attributes are linked to our choices in music, with classical lovers more likely
    to have strong self-esteem and creative tendencies and dance fans being
    outgoing without being very gentle.

    Prof Adrian North, who conducted the study, said the findings were very
    revealing and that our musical tastes can be seen as a direct reflection of our
    characters. “Researchers have been showing for decades that fans or rock
    and rap are rebellious, and that fans of opera are wealthy and well-educated,
    but this is the first time that research has shown that personality links to liking
    for a wide range of musical styles. We asked people to rate how much they
    liked 104 musical styles, before then completing a personality test. 36518
    people from all around the world took part, and the research is by far the
    largest study of musical preference and personality ever undertaken.”

    “Jazz and classical music fans are creative and have good self-esteem, but
    the former are much more outgoing whereas the latter are shy. Country and
    western fans are hardworking and shy, whereas rap fans are outgoing. Indie
    fans lack self-esteem, and aren’t terribly gentle people, but are at least
    creative. Contrary to the stereotype, heavy metal fans are gentle and at ease
    with themselves. Unsurprisingly, Magik Markers fans are questionable
    characters.”

    “People often define their sense of identity through their musical taste,
    wearing particular clothes, going to certain pubs, and using certain types of
    slang. It’s not so surprising that personality should also be related to musical
    preference.”

    The researchers also found that your personality and lifestyle said a lot about
    the kind of emotional reactions to music that you have. If listeners preferred
    exciting, punchy music they were more likely to be on a higher earning
    bracket with those opting for relaxing sounds more inclined to be lower down
    the pay scale.

    Prof North is continuing his research, and needs as many people as possible
    from anywhere in the world to visit www.peopleintomusic.com, where they will
    be asked to spend five minutes completing a short questionnaire.

    Prof North’s new book, The Social and Applied Psychology of Music, was
    published earlier this year by Oxford University Press.

    Notes to Editors:

    Adrian North is Professor of Psychology and head of the Department of


    Applied Psychology at Heriot Watt University, situated in Edinburgh, United
    Kingdom. Tel: +44 (0)131 451 8239 / +44 (0)7811 121950. Email:
    a.north@hw.ac.uk. Web: http://www.psychology.hw.ac.uk/staff.php

    The following table details links between personality and some prevalent
    musical styles. An ‘↑’ means that people who like the musical style score
    higher on this aspect of personality, and an ‘↓’ means that people who like the
    musical style score lower on this aspect of personality. If a cell is empty then
    there is no relationship

    Self-esteem Creative Hardworking Outgoing Gentle At ease


    Bollywood ↑ ↑
    Indian folk ↓ ↑ ↓ ↑
    Latino ↑ ↑ ↑ ↑ ↑ ↑
    Samba ↑ ↑ ↑ ↑ ↑
    Blues ↑ ↑ ↑ ↑
    Funk ↑ ↑ ↓ ↑ ↑
    Jazz ↑ ↑ ↑ ↑
    Classical music ↑ ↑ ↓ ↑
    Opera ↑ ↑ ↑
    Easy listening ↑ ↓ ↑ ↑ ↑ ↑
    Country & western ↑ ↑
    Rap ↑ ↑
    Reggae ↑ ↑ ↓ ↑ ↑ ↑
    Dance music ↑ ↑ ↓
    Disco ↑ ↓ ↑ ↑ ↑
    Indie ↓ ↑ ↓ ↓
    Punk ↓ ↑ ↓ ↓
    Rock and roll ↑ ↑ ↑ ↓ ↑
    Rock / ↓ ↑ ↓ ↓ ↑ ↑

    heavy metal
    Chart pop ↑ ↓ ↑ ↑ ↑ ↓
    Marching / ↑ ↓ ↓ ↑

    Military
    Soul ↑ ↑ ↑ ↑ ↑
    Swing ↑ ↑ ↑

    -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    The following table details links between personality and the characteristics of

    the music that people like to listen to. An ‘↑’ means that people who like this

    type of music score higher on this aspect of personality, and an ‘↓’ means that

    people who like this type of music score lower on this aspect of personality. If

    a cell is empty then there is no relationship

    Emotion Self- Creative Hardworking Outgoing Gentle At

    esteem ease
    Relaxing ↑ ↑ ↑ ↓ ↑ ↑
    Peaceful ↑ ↑ ↑ ↓ ↑ ↑
    Exciting ↑ ↑ ↑ ↓
    Celebratory ↑ ↑ ↑ ↓
    Unsettling ↓ ↑ ↓ ↑ ↓
    Disconcerting ↓ ↑ ↓ ↓
    Boring ↓ ↓ ↓
    Unstimulating ↓ ↓ ↓ ↓ ↑
    Arousing ↑ ↑ ↑ ↑ ↓ ↓

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