(July 23, 2015) Do
you like your jazz to be Norah Jones or Ornette Coleman, your classical music
to be Bach or Stravinsky, or your rock to be Coldplay or Slayer? The answer
could give an insight into the way you think, say researchers from the
University of Cambridge.
In a study published today in the journal PLOS ONE, a team
of psychologists show that your thinking style – whether you are an
‘empathizer’ who likes to focus on and respond to the emotions of others, or a
‘systemizer’ who likes to analyse rules and patterns in the world—is a
predictor of the type of music you like.
Music is a prominent feature of everyday life and nearly
everywhere we go. It’s easy for us to know what types of music we like and
don’t like. When shuffling songs on an iPod, it takes us only a few seconds to
decide whether to listen or skip to the next track. However, little is known
about what determines our taste in music.
Researchers over the past decade have argued that musical
preferences reflect explicit characteristics such as age and personality. For
example, people who are open to new experiences tend to prefer music from the
blues, jazz, classical, and folk genres, and people who are extraverted and
‘agreeable’ tend to prefer music from the pop, soundtrack, religious, soul,
funk, electronic, and dance genres.