Musical tastes can predict personality traits and political leaning

22 Oct

Do you have similar musical tastes to your friends? How about your work colleagues? Do you think musical tastes tell us anything else about a person? This study thinks it might when it compared musical taste with political leaning.

The big five personality domains they are referring to are:

Openness to experience (inventive/curious vs. consistent/cautious)
Conscientiousness (efficient/organised vs. easy-going/careless)
Extraversion (outgoing/energetic vs. solitary/reserved)
Agreeableness (friendly/compassionate vs. challenging/detached)
Neuroticism (sensitive/nervous vs. secure/confident)

Interestingly, in previous studies musicians have been found to have high ratings in the openness to experience domain. However, in the study we have linked, they looked at musical taste across the domains, not as a single domain being dominant. At BBB we wonder if there is a difference between the music we choose to learn and play, and the music we choose to listen to? Many teenagers might play in a orchestra, but listen to 70s rock, or play in a rock band and listen to Bach. Who would they vote for?

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