SUMMARY OF INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES IN MUSIC TASTE

The research paper termed individual differences in musical tastes by Adrian C.North builds on the existing
research done by the likes of Rentfrow and Gosling , George et al. , and north, Hargreaves and Hargreaves
regarding how music style preferences are determined by an individual’s personality. He also added a
second part to his main hypothesis that attempted to study this very co-relation between musical taste and
personality traits, which aimed to study how other individual difference variables such as sex, age, self-
esteem and income, also influence musical taste.

The researcher first discusses how previous researchers regarding the same topic have classified the subject
in 3 parts- the complexity and variability of the music, the listening situation and the listener. While
researches for the first two have been previously done, the third factor, ie, factors regarding the listener has
hardly been looked into. North explains the previous researches and their short comings and finally
proceeds to explain his own study. North used a Rosenberg self-esteem scale, a shortened version of the big
five personality dimensions. This shortened version by Langford use appropriate proxies for the original five
dimensions (for example creative for openness dimension), and a scale to check the emotional connection a
person has to their musical taste (developed by north and Hargreaves). Data was collected from 36,518
participants across Europe, North America, Australia and New Zealand. Data was collected using an internet
questionnaire. Participants had to rate their liking for 104 musical styles across the globe that were verified
by ethnomusicologists and cultural groups to ensure they were well known (North Hargreaves, O Neill).

Several interesting results were concluded from the survey. Some results were in accordance to the previous
researches, while most showed a different result. For example, Rentfrow and Gosling had found a
correlation between anti authoritarianism and fans or rap and rock. He had found that openness was related
to liking for their “intense and rebellious” metastyle. However in contrast, in this research it was found that
“creative” scores (proxy for openness) were not even closely related to liking for rock (and dance)
metastyles. Similarly, Rentfrow and Gosling found that liking for “upbeat and conventional” metastyle was
related positively to extroversion, agreeableness, and conscientiousness. Some aspects of the present
research do support this, such as the strong relationship between “gentle” (the proxy here for agreeableness)
and liking for mainstream music. However, the mainstream metastyle was also among those related most
weakly to the measure of “outgoing” (i.e., the proxy for extroversion).

The research also found that people listen to music that represent a reflection rather than a compensation for
personality. “Creative” scores (the proxy for openness) were related positively to listening to music in order
to enjoy the music, to be creative and use imagination, and to express feelings and emotions. “Outgoing”
scores (the proxy for extroversion) were related positively to listening to music in order to be trendy, to
create an image, and to please friends, and they were related negatively to listening to music in order to
reduce loneliness. Interesting results regarding musical preferences and a person’s age, sex, income and self-
esteem were also found.

Thus, This study found that liking for a wide range of musical styles could be grouped into 10 metastyles,
that liking for the musical styles was related to a short form of a general measure of personality, that other
individual differences (particularly age) appear to be related to musical taste more closely than were data
obtained from the short personality measure, and that participants’ reasons for listening to their favorite
music typically reflected (rather than compensated for) aspects of their personality. However, even though
individual difference variables typically explained only a small portion of the variance in musical taste, this
does not mean that individual differences are unimportant or uninteresting. Without consideration of them, it
would be difficult to explain the diversity of musical tastes that exist.