Researchers Find That Music Taste Gives Insight to Thinking Style

A group of psychologists published a study that suggests a person's thinking style, such as "empathizers" who focus on others or "systemizers" who focus on order, could be used to predict the type of music they listen to. It is believed by the researchers that this information could be used for more personalized music recommendations from streaming services.

The study is based largely on the argument that "musical preferences reflect explicit characteristics such as age and personality." For examples, other studies have found that "people who are open to new experiences tend to prefer music from the blues, jazz, classical, and folk genres, and people who are extroverted and ‘agreeable’ tend to prefer music from the pop, soundtrack, religious, soul, funk, electronic, and dance genres."

After testing over 4,000 participants, the new study found that people who are more empathetic prefer mellower music and disliked intense music, while "systemizers" have inverse preferences. PhD student David Greenburg, who led the study, believes the information could have implications in the music industry, saying:

A lot of money is put into algorithms to choose what music you may want to listen to, for example on Spotify and Apple Music. By knowing an individual’s thinking style, such services might in future be able to fine tune their music recommendations to an individual.

Find more detailed information about the new study here.