Please note, this article is a little different from the usual articles. I hope you enjoy, as I have spent a few days trying to put this one together, and finally decided to release it today. Enjoy!
One question I have heard many people ask, whether knowledgeable of MBTI or not, is the effect of personality on music taste. This is a question I not only want to address in relation to MBTI, but also in relation to all musical genres.
Very little research was done on the psychology of music up until the 20th century. However, it wasn’t until the 21st century that many noticeable trends were established. Many research studies have used the Big Five to measure the effects of personality on music preferences. It is firstly important to establish how the Big Five relates to MBTI. The Big Five has five traits that relate very much to the MBTI traits. These are openness to experience (similar to intuition versus sensor it is about having an open mind to ideas), agreeableness (similar to feeling versus thinking), extraversion (similar to extrovert versus introvert it is about the external world), conscientiousness (similar to judging versus perceiving, it is about the desire for task efficiency) and finally neuroticism (this is about emotional stability). To establish this research, it is important firstly to investigate the research on music tastes for certain genres, and investigate how the research relates to Big Five and therefore MBTI.
Extraversion (I vs E)
Research shows that extroverts prefer happy music like pop, hip-hop, rap, electronic music. A few theories could explain this. Firstly, extroverts are more likely to follow the popular crowd. They will listen to what is popular to talk about it with other people, whereas introverts are more about making decisions based on themselves. Secondly, extroverts generally do prefer music that doesn’t require too much thinking; considering they often focus on a few tasks at once, rather than just listening to music by itself. This is further supported, as research also shows that extroverts listen to music more and have more background music present (perhaps due to their ability to multitask?) Source
Openness (N vs S)
Openness has been shown to be one of the highest traits, therefore the difference between N and S results in a higher difference than the other letters. This makes sense, as perceiving music is one of the most influential differences in why we like certain genres. Studies show that intuitive people prefer more complex music, including classical and jazz. Source This makes sense; this type of person have a greater appreciation for aesthetic appreciation.
Agreeableness (F vs T)
Unsurprisingly, feeling types are more emotionally affected by the music they listen to. This is because feeling types are more subjective than thinkers. Source t
Conscientiousness (J vs P)
Research shows perceiving types tend to be less judgmental of music, and will be more likely to enjoy a range of genres. Judging types, on the other hand, are more likely to enjoy exclusive genres. This can be explained because perceiving types are often more open and accepting than judging types.
What is your opinion on this information? Leave a comment below on your MBTI type and favorite type of music!
Like this:
Like Loading...