Music training has been shown to help improve intellectual development and ability, though minimal connection has been found as to how it affects emotion regulation.
[3] These studies are not limited to American culture, as they have been conducted with significant results in countries all over the world, including Japan,[4] Germany,[5] Spain,[6] and Brazil.
[3] A meta-analysis conducted by Schäfer and Mehlorn, (2017) of previous studies trying to determine if experience seeking or any of the Big-Five personality traits predicted musical preferences, revealed that the correlation coefficient between music genre and personality traits possessed a magnitude greater than 0.1 in only 6 out of the 30 studies they reviewed.
[8] In a study conducted in 2020, researchers analyzed data from Spotify users and mapped the Big Five personality traits to different genres, moods, and derived metrics such as the number of playlists, diversity in song choice, and repetition of listening habits.
Results indicated a high degree of variance between participant genre and sub-genre preferences.
[9] However, the investigation into this relationship between the influence of personality on music preference remains ongoing despite these genre-based limitations in methodology and past discrepancies in research results.
The majority of studies attempting to find the correlation between personality and musical preferences administered questionnaires to measure both traits.
[10][11][6][12][13][14][5][15] Others used questionnaires to determine personality traits, and then asked participants to rate musical excerpts on scales such as liking, perceived complexity, emotions felt, and more.
The personality traits have also been shown to correlate significantly with the emotional effect music has on people.
Individual personality differences can help predict the emotional intensity and valence derived from music.
[21] Another study examined how openness to experience and frequency of listening are related and how they affect music preference.
[25] One study had people take a personality test before and after listening to classical music with and without written lyrics in front of them.
[12][13][15][6] Furthermore, individuals more open to experience prefer a greater number of melodic themes in a work of music.
[29] Cheerful music with fast tempos, many melodic themes, and vocals are also preferred by extroverts.
[13] In a Turkish study, researchers found that extroverts preferred rock, pop, and rap because these genres facilitated dance and movement.
[16] Agreeableness is also a good predictor of the emotional intensity experienced from all types of music, both positive and negative.
[16] The more neurotic a person is, the more likely they are to listen to intense and rebellious music (such as alternative, rock and heavy metal).
[34][35] In a study conducted by McDermott and Schultz (2016), participants from three regions in Bolivia (La Paz, San Borja, and Santa Maria) and the United States were evaluated for differences in music preferences.
Results indicated that Americans, particularly trained musicians, demonstrated the strongest preference for consonances in their music.
[10][38] In a Canadian study concerning how adolescent music preferences relate to personality, researchers found that adolescents who preferred heavy music demonstrated low self-esteem, higher levels of discomfort within the family, and tended to feel rejected by others.
Adolescents who preferred light music were preoccupied with doing the proper thing, and had difficulty balancing independence with dependence.
In a 1953 study, Cattell and Anderson began the process of determining musical preference through unconscious traits.
[20] On that line of thinking, aggression has been shown to improve creativity and emotional intensity derived from music.
[21] This helps explain why many people might have strong reactions to music their parents listened to frequently when they were children.
Movements associated with smiling muscles (both positive or negative) were found to have the largest effect on musical preference.
Music can engage the brain in many different ways, whether that be making one more attentive, focused, increased concentration etc.
Songs with lyrics are potentially more distracting than instrumental melodies and music with other modes or tempos could possibly evoke obstructive emotions for learning.
As seen in other types of artistic media, an inverted U relationship is apparent when relating subjective complexity on liking music excerpts.