Do you enjoy relaxing to classical music, or bopping along to hard rock? The music you love might say something about your personality, and vice versa.
We have all different tastes in music. Some people believe that the genres you’re most drawn to might say a lot about your personality.
Instead of turning to the zodiac to see if you’re compatible with someone, could your music preferences determine if your personality matches up with someone else’s?
Have you ever noticed that you enjoy listening to the same type of music as your friends? Evidence suggests it’s not a coincidence.
You may be able to look at someone’s Spotify favorites and get a glimpse of their personality. Or, you might be able to figure out what music they’re into based on their personality traits.
A 2018 study looked at people’s music-related Facebook likes and music listening habits. The researchers found that the participants’ musical preferences predicted some personality traits.
The researchers looked at how people’s musical tastes compared with their personality based on the Big Five personality traits:
The researchers showed that people with higher openness were more likely to enjoy sophisticated music (complex, dynamic genres like classical, opera, and jazz), and to dislike mellow music (slow, relaxing genres like R&B and soft rock) and contemporary music (rap, electronic, dance, Europop and Latin).
This suggests that people whose personalities make them more open to new experiences are more likely to enjoy classical music and jazz, but less likely to enjoy R&B and electronic music.
People who scored higher in trait extraversion were more likely to have a preference for “unpretentious” music. This included relaxing acoustic music, like country and folk genres.
Meanwhile, higher agreeableness was linked with a general liking of music.
Further to this, a 2022 study analyzed the musical preferences of over 350,000 people in more than 50 countries and six continents and found the link between musical preference and personality to be universal. That means music and personality are intertwined, no matter where you live.
The researchers found that people with higher extraversion had stronger reactions to upbeat, rhythmic, and electronic music. They also found that people with higher openness preferred sophisticated music, such as improvisational and instrumental tracks.
In 2011 , researchers developed a five-factor model to explain musical preferences. They say that people may fall into one of the following “MUSIC” categories based on their musical preferences: