Individual differences in musical taste

Adrian C. North

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

    72 Citations (Scopus)

    Abstract

    Several studies have investigated the relationship between (usually a narrow set of) personality dimensions and liking for a small number of individual musical styles. To date there has been no attempt to investigate, within a single methodology, the extent to which personality factors correlate with liking for a very wide range of musical styles. To address this, 36,518 participants rated their liking for 104 musical styles, completed a short form of the Big 5 personality inventory, and provided other data about their favorite musical styles. Personality factors were related to both liking for the musical styles and participants' reasons for listening to this music. However, on the whole these latter variables were related more closely to participants' age, sex, and income than to Big 5 scores. Thus, personality is related to musical taste, but other individual differences are arguably related more closely. © 2010 by the Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois.

    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)199-208
    Number of pages10
    JournalAmerican Journal of Psychology
    Volume123
    Issue number2
    Publication statusPublished - Jun 2010

    Fingerprint

    Dive into the research topics of 'Individual differences in musical taste'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

    Cite this