What Our Choice in Music Says About Our Thought Process

Your favorite iPod playlist could say more about you than just your taste in music. According to a recent study published by a team of psychologists at the University at Cambridge, differences in musical taste could be linked to more than just differences in personality – more specifically if the listener in question is an ‘empathizer’ (who focuses on and responds to the emotions of others) or ‘systemizer’ (a more analytical thinker).

While previous research has indicated that musical preference is closely linked to age and other social factors, this team of researchers, led by David Greenberg, a PhD student at Cambridge and the principle investigator of the study, believe that the type of music a person prefers is an even stronger indication of their cognitive style.

“Although people’s music choices fluctuates over time, we’ve discovered a person’s empathy levels and thinking style predicts what kind of music they like,” Greenberg said. “In fact, their cognitive style – whether they’re strong on empathy or strong on systems – can be a better predictor of what music they like than their personality.”

The study gathered data from over 4,000 participants and found that “people who scored high on empathy preferred what researchers categorized as “mellow” music—such as R&B, soft rock, and adult contemporary tunes—“unpretentious” music—such as country, bluegrass, and folk—and “contemporary” music—which included everything from acid jazz to Euro pop. They disliked “intense” music, such as punk, hard rock, and heavy metal. In contrast, people who scored high on systemizing liked intense music, but disliked mellow and unpretentious musical styles,” according to Popular Science.

Researchers also found a correlation between musical preferences within the same genre.