Here’s What Your Taste in Music Reveals About YOU

If you’ve judged someone by their music tastes in the past, you should know your judgments may have been legitimate.

A new article, written in The Hill, looks at a few past studies.  It points out that one “shows a link between preferred musical genres and our capacity for empathy, with results across samples showing that empathy levels are linked to preferences even within genres.”

They specifically found that those who have a bias toward empathizing preferred mellow music – which might fall within the genres of R&B and soft rock.  Meanwhile, those who prefer genres such as heavy metal or hard rock tend to show a bias towards logic-based thinking, rather than showing empathy.

Another study reveals that self-assured people were more likely to enjoy positive music; while those who seek excitement prefer higher arousal music, and those who are open-minded had a more general preference for music overall, and were also more open to music that spanned genres.

Researcher David Greenberg with the University of Cambridge adds, “The idea that music is solely entertainment, or even just a pure aesthetic experience, is very misguided.  Music is a form of language.  It’s part of human evolution, and it’s deeply embedded into our brains.”
(TheHill)

• A roundup of data about music suggests there really is a scientific connection between the type of music a person prefers and their personality
• One study found that people with a bias toward empathizing prefer mellow music that might fall within the genres of R&B and soft rock, while those who prefers genres such as heavy metal or hard rock tend to show a bias towards logic-based thinking