Psychology of musical preferences

Of all the character traits, openness to experience, as studies have shown, has the greatest effect on genre preferences. ^[6] People who have a high level of openness to experience mostly prefer more complex and diverse music, such as classical music , jazz , eclecticism . ^[7] One of the facets of openness to experience is aesthetics, so researchers usually assume that there will be a high positive correlation between openness and preference for complex music. ^[8] People who have high levels of openness also usually appreciate their own mental abilities. It could also explain why this group of people loves sophisticated classical music and jazz. ^[9]

One study that studies how character traits influence the emotions caused by music concludes that of all the features of the big five, openness to experience most implies strong emotional reactions to sad and slow music. The most frequent emotions caused by sad music are nostalgia , tranquility, and admiration. Openness to experience positively correlated with all these emotions. ^[10] However, another study that examined the ability of music to induce “goosebumps” to the listener did not find any connection between the openness of experience and the ability to feel goosebumps from listening to music. The only parameters that could predict goosebumps were how often a person listens to music and how highly he appreciates the importance of music in his life. ^[11] Another study examined how openness to experience and the frequency of listening to music are related to each other and how they influence musical preferences. While listening to excerpts from classical music, people with a high rate of openness to experience soon ceased to enjoy the music during repeated auditions, compared with those who had low rates of openness. The second category, on the contrary, liked music more with repeated auditions. From this we can assume that novelty in music is an important quality for people open to experience. ^[12]

In one study, people filled out a psychological test before and after listening to classical music (whether they were given words to read or not). Music with words and without influenced the assessment of their psychological qualities, most of all on the openness to experience, which increased significantly. ^[13] In this study, not character traits influence the music that people prefer, but listening music influences people's perception of their own personality traits.

Extraversion is another good indicator of genre preferences in music. She also predicts how people will use music. People with a high extroversion rate usually prefer happy "social" music, such as pop , hip-hop , rap , and electronic music. In addition, extroverts listen to music more often than introverts , and more often use music as background. ^[8] One study compared introverts and extroverts to find out which of these groups will be more distracted by background music (with or without words). It was assumed that since extroverts often include background music, they will be able to filter it out better, but this was not the case. Both groups are equally distracted to music with words. ^[14]

Another study studied music teachers and music therapists, suggesting that people studying music would be more extrovert. The study showed that music teachers are on average more extrovert. Music therapists were also on average more extroverted, but much less so than teachers. ^[15]

Although benevolence has little effect on genre preferences, it predicts well the intensity of musical emotions, both positive and negative. Those who have a high rate of benevolence usually experience stronger emotions from music. ^[sixteen]

Neuroticism badly predicts genre preferences, but it can predict how people use music. People with high neuroticism often use music for emotional regulation, and, which may be related to the previous one, they experience stronger emotions from sad music. ^[17]