The Music In Me

Studies at the University of Cambridge have revealed that many of us use musical taste both as a means of expressing our own identity, and to form and refine our opinions about other people.

Researchers found that sample groups of subjects regularly make the same assumptions about peoples personalities, values, social class and even their ethnicity, based on their musical preferences. Rock fans, for instance, are commonly held to be rebellious and artistic, but emotionally unstable. Classical music-lovers, on the other hand, are seen as personable and intellectual, but unattractive and a bit boring.

The studies have been led by Dr Jason Rentfrow, from the Universitys Department of Social and Developmental Psychology, who is conducting ongoing research into the links between personality and musical taste.His work forms the subject of this short film.

Duration : 0:6:29


[youtube 29-xYiOOc8w]

25 Responses to “The Music In Me”

  1. Haha mines doesn’t …
    Haha mines doesn’t fit in anywhere! I’m introvert and can be extrovert too! And like a variety of music too!

  2. Interesting video. …
    Interesting video. Good idea for a research project.

  3. LastDanceSaloon on December 28th, 2009 at 9:31 am

    It’s a known fact …
    It’s a known fact that taste in music can change with the wind in pretty much any human being dependent on social circle, age, a change in the quality/attitude of the performers and a myriad of other factors.

    This whole study is so backward. It was proven long ago that music helps shape your immediate personality state, not visa-versa. This is why shops and restaurants never play death metal or gangsta rap.

    I’m going to have to stop until I find out the point of the study…

  4. LastDanceSaloon on December 28th, 2009 at 9:31 am

    I am watching this …
    I am watching this late at night due to insomnia based illness and have the sound really low. For a video about sound from sound experts, why does the presenter whisper every line and everyone else shout their lines. I had to watch the whole video playing with the volume button.

    Anyway, can I ask the purpose of the study? What use will the data provide? And to who’s benefit?

    Continued in next post…

  5. Mmmmm…how …
    Mmmmm…how incredibly, fascinatingly….
    “bleedin’ obvious.”

  6. Rufus is on his way …
    Rufus is on his way to a rave hahaha. The man’s a legend.

  7. L33tImagination on December 28th, 2009 at 9:31 am

    not exactly …
    not exactly millions of personalities…

    there’s introvert and extrovert,
    and then theres the next step down and the next step and so on.

    Ok, so there’s a lot of combinations, but by finding out that someone likes a particular genre of music you can work out some of these.

    You don’t need to know everything about someone to know how they react to you and stuff.

  8. Seckser said:
    “This …

    Seckser said:
    “This is why I can’t stand people, there’s always stereotypes to certain genre’s or styles of music”

    Far be it from me to pick on you, but… honestly, are you serious? :)

    You “can’t stand people” because some of them “label” or stereotype you… and you find it’s THEM who have a problem? :)

  9. I thought this was …
    I thought this was all common sense?

  10. Perharps we can …
    Perharps we can discover the personality of people who don´t have to much personality. Only like one kind of music, they are closed to any other kind and disguise and act as the sterotype of these kind of music videoclips

  11. Of course music has …
    Of course music has to be with the personality. But there ar millions of possible combinations, as there are millions of personalities. Won´t be the same a person who like classic, hip hop, house and funky, that a person who like classic, hip hop, rock and pop. People don´t or shouldn´t like just one kind of music. The factors to see would be the combination of different music they like, how much they like, how they listen to each kind of music…

  12. Thats my friend …
    Thats my friend with a beard on the thumb-nail. Mr Fox rocks! Hehe

  13. This is why I can’t …
    This is why I can’t stand people, there’s always stereotypes to certain genre’s or styles of music, and if your friends don’t like that type of music, they tend to label you.

  14. Lol that guy going …
    Lol that guy going to a rave i wanna mosh with him.

  15. be nice if we could …
    be nice if we could take a test to see which one we are

  16. Grindcore is like …
    Grindcore is like metal meets gabba. It’s the sound of collapsing. Check Wikipedia.

    And buy Altered States of America by Agoraphobic Nosebleed.

    It will make you want to eat your own hair.

  17. what’s grindcore :o
    what’s grindcore :o

  18. What exactly makes …
    What exactly makes happy music happy though, and what you might think of as happy music i might think isn’t happy at all. It may seem like an obvious conclusion to you, but shouldn’t be ignored entirely.

  19. What a crap metal …
    What a crap metal band.
    Still, I’d like to see what else they found out through that study.

  20. well obviously …
    well obviously people who are in a certain subculture wont agree with their particular sterotype but will agree with others, but thats only because since there part of it they see a much larger part of that subculture than the people who construct the sterotypes do.

  21. I don’t think this …
    I don’t think this gu iss on the verge of discovering something on par with the theory of gravity.

    Maybe the theory of happy music makes you happy, and sad music makes you sad.. but that’s it.

  22. does the fact that …
    does the fact that it’s obvious matter.

    I see it as being pretty obvious that an apple falls downwards, yet this had one of the biggest impacts on science

  23. That’s a couple of …
    That’s a couple of months of your life wasted there, doctor. anybody could tell you that.

  24. thanks for the info …
    thanks for the info but all this stuff was pretty obvious without a study.

  25. talking about music …
    talking about music is not what i said so i can’t be accused of being dumb for something i didn’t write unless of course the dictionary definition of to talk and to analyse are the same in which case i am dumb

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