Just because she likes the same bizzaro crap you do doesn't mean she's your soul mate

Music Preferences and Interpersonal Perception

Isabel Acosta, 2007-49035

In the 2009 film, 500 Days of Summer, the lead character Tom Hansen falls in love with Summer Finn, especially after he found out that she likes The Smiths.

Summer: [Tom is listening to headphones in an elevator with Summer. She notices the music] I love the Smiths.

Tom: Sorry?

Summer: I said I love the Smiths.

Summer: [They stare at each other for a moment] You... You have good taste in music.

Tom: [repeating after her] You... like the Smiths?

Summer: [singing] To die by your side, such a heavenly way to die.

[speaking] I love em.

Tom: [elevator stops, Summer leaves while Tom remains dumbfounded] Holy shit.

This scene is not atypical. I'm sure you have experienced it before, people who have the same taste in music as us suddenly become more attractive, or people who reveal that they worship Justin Bieber suddenly become disgusting and unbearable (no offense). Excellent music taste is crucial trait or commonality we look for in our most intimate relationships. We even use music to create impressions about our own personalities! What is it about music preferences that influences our perception of other personalities? Does the use of such information give us accurate impressions of other people, and can we convey our personalities efficiently and effectively by sharing our music preferences? Is music really enough to tell if one can be a compatible potential mate? Rentfrow & Gosling (2006) sought to find these out.

What can you infer about this person? We think the person's awesome!

In their first study, they asked the question, "What do people talk about as they become acquainted?" The researchers thought that the content of these getting-to-know conversations contain a lot of information about the person's thoughts, feelings, preferences and values and thus the topics talked about should influence people's impressions of one another. Examining these conversations would also be helpful to find out what kinds of information people use to get to know the other person. They examined the content of online conversations among 60 strangers (mean age = 18.4 years old, SD = .94) over a 6 week getting -acquainted period. They were not given any instructions but to talk about anything they thought would enable them to get to know each other. They coded the conversations using the Linguistic Inventory and Word Count computer program. It checks each word of a text and categorizes them into books, clothing, movies, music, television shows, football and other sports (these are the most popular conversation topics, according to a previous study by the same researchers, and it was football season during the study), and the percentage of total words in each category was reported. The researchers analyzed the percentage of participants who talked about specific topics, and they found that music was the most commonly discussed topic. Given that the only instructions were to talk about anything that would help the participants be better acquainted, the results implied that music plays an important role in getting to know other people.

Friendships and relationships can start from the question, "What music do you listen to?"

In the second study, the researchers asked, "What interpersonal information do music preferences convey?" Do a person’s music preferences convey a clear, consistent, and interpretable message about his or her personality? If so, how accurate is that message? And what features of these preferences convey the interpersonal information? Seventy-four undergraduates (mean age = 18.9 years old, SD = 2.3) completed personality tests (the Big Five Inventory, Rokeach's Values Survey, and Positive and Negative Affect Schedule) and included a CD containing their top 10 favorite songs. A new set of 8 participants/observers were tasked to listen to all 74 CDs and rate the CD owners using the same scales they (the CD owners) previously answered. The researchers found that the observers had similar impressions of the participants (positive correlations for all measures). They also found that these impressions were accurate, by comparing the observers' and the participants' ratings on the different scales. They found positive correlations for each measure (BFI, values and affect). To further test the accuracy of these results and to contextualize them further, the researchers compared the results to the results of a previous study that used videotapes and photographs as bases of personality. The results of this comparison is graphed below:

+ 1 means a perfect correlation while - 1 is the perfect inverse correlation

They found that the information available from music is very different from what can be learned from studying photographs and videos. Although videos and photos are good at assessing Conscientiousness and Extraversion, music preferences were more telling of Agreeableness, Emotional Stability, and Openness to Experience. Observer's and participant's ratings were positively correlated in 11 other traits aside from the three Big Five traits previously mentioned.

What can you tell from Steve Martin's picture?

What can you tell from his

playlist?

The researchers also found that the observers' judgements of the participants were associated with a number of music attributes (such as tempo, pitch, etcetera) and genre. For example, extraversion was related to energy, enthusiasm, singing, and the genre's country and hip-hop. They also correlated the participants' own ratings with musical attributes and genres, and they found that both attributes and genres said were valid indicators of their personality (like extraverted targets' songs were full of energy, singing, enthusiasm etc.) The researchers then compared these two correlations with each other and found that some traits and impressions were mediated better by a particular cue. For example, impressions of certain qualities, like Extraversion, are more strongly related to information about music attributes than to information about genres, whereas other impressions, like value for imagination, are more strongly associated with information about genres than with information about music attributes. It was a pity that the researchers did not include the table containing the correlations between the judgments, the 25 music attributes, and genres in the journal article (because it would be space-consuming), so I would not be able to discuss the other correlations they found. I think that they did not find it necessary to include the table anymore because the main point of this substudy is that our judgments of other people's identity based on music preferences are fairly accurate and we draw our inferences based on certain cues, such as the music's attributes and genre.

Music and Identity --or was it the other way around?

Research on the social psychology of music suggests that 1) individuals believe music preferences reveal information about their personalities, 2) individuals deliberately use music preferences to convey information about themselves, and 3) music preferences and personality are linked. With these, the researchers found it reasonable to infer that discussions about music preferences could serve to inform individuals’ understanding of one another’s personalities. To sum it up, the researchers found that a) music is a common topic of conversation among strangers who are aiming to be acquainted with the other, b) music preferences carry unique information about personality that is not readily available from more observable cues like photos and videos, c) given that the observers' ratings were found to be accurate, individuals’ music preferences convey consistent and messages about their personalities, and d) the results suggest that "specific attributes of individuals’ music preferences and music-genre stereotypes differentially influenced observers’ impressions of targets’ traits, values, and affect." Researchers indicate that their study's sample comprised of young adults, because of the centrality of music in the youth's lives (importance of music diminishes with age). Since the sample was limited to this cohort, the researchers are not sure about the applicability of the findings to older people. Future studies are then recommended to test if the same findings will be observed in a sample of older participants. Also, future studies should concentrate on the mechanisms and process that explain the links between personality and music preferences.

Human beings have an intuitive understanding of music preferences and personality (example, jazz listeners were correctly perceived as intellectuals, a preference for vocals was correctly related to extraversion, etc)! This intuition is probably largely driven or influenced by our social interactions, experience with the music, and exposure to media and pop culture. Our judgements of personality based on music preference is probably mediated by our social status, country of residence, and cohort as well. But why do music preferences reveal information about personality? The researchers suggested three possible mechanisms. First, individuals might seek out styles of music on the basis of how pleasing they sound. Definition of pleasingness depends on a number of factors ranging from low-level auditory aesthetics (for example, extraverted individuals might listen to choral music purely because they enjoy the sound of the human voice) to higher-level cognitive processes (for example, the words of a religious song may correspond with an individual’s spiritual beliefs). Second, individuals might seek out styles of music to regulate their arousal levels; for example, easygoing individuals might prefer soothing styles of music because such music enables them to maintain a level of calmness. Third, individuals might use music to make self- and other-directed identity claims like, intellectual people might listen to complex music because it projects an image of sophistication. Another study by Chamorro-Premuzic and Furnham (2007) studied the use of music as well. Their study can be accessed here: http://alliance.la.asu.edu/temporary/students/katie/PersonalityAndMusic.pdf (If you are interested).

What does your music say about you?

The study established the basic links between personality expression, personality impression and music preferences. It is so interesting how music is actually a reliable marker of personality or impressions and these impressions are mediated by our perception of music (its elements such as pitch, tempo, rhythm etc), along with our personal biases and stereotypes regarding music genres! Even our individual characteristics and exposure to varying experiences mediates the perception and impression formation process. It is such an amazing interplay of implicit information! This study really made me appreciate the perceptual process further --it is a true testament to the dynamic relationship between stimuli, experience, knowledge, and perception. It is so amazing how much can be shared and how much can be learned just by finding out a person's music preferences. It is so interesting how integral music is in our identity formation and interpersonal perceptions. It certainly presents another way by which we navigate through everyday social interactions and impressions --this study is contributory to both on perception and social psychology. I am really stunned with the results of the study, because it is so unbelievable that music-based inferences are actually accurate and telling of the person's character. I guess it was right for Tom to exclaim, "Holy shit" after all. Although personality inferences are found to be fairly accurate, I think it is important to remember that our individual differences (socio-economic status, exposure, age, biases, etc) still mediate our inferences and impressions. We cannot ultimately box people according to our personal meanings about their music preferences. Music preferences and the amount of information we can obtain from them should just assist us in our interactions with other people. Given that music preferences holds a lot of powerful and telling information, we should remember to use that information wisely, logically and ethically. We must not abuse or misuse this substantial source of information.

So next time your parent asks you about your suitor, or next time you want to assess a potential mate, get a list or better yet, a CD of his or her top-10 ultimate eargasmic songs. You and your parents might like what you hear --literally and figuratively.

Source:

Rentfrow, P.J., & Gosling, S.D. (2006). Message in a ballad: The role of music preferences in interpersonal perception. Psychological Science, 17(3), 236-242.

See also:

Rentfrow, P.J., & Gosling, S.D. (2003). The do-re-mi’s of everyday life: The structure and personality correlates of music preferences. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 84, 1236–1256.

Additional information: My part in my report for PI 100 was about the many impacts of music and its connection to the youth and nationalism. I will post that sometime next week :)