The Social Psychology of Musical Preferences Seminar

Music is a pervasive social phenomenon found in every known human culture. Individuals demonstrate manifestly different preferences for music, and yet relatively little is known about the underlying structure of those preferences or their psychological correlates. Results from multiple studies involving several thousand participants have converged to suggest that there exists a latent five-factor structure underlying music preferences that is genre-free, and reflects primarily emotional/affective responses to music.

These five orthogonal dimensions can be interpreted as: Mellow, Unpretentious, Sophisticated, Intense, and Contemporary (or MUSIC). Investigations of the correlates of MUSIC preferences reveal robust links to psychological values and personality traits. Furthermore, results from cross-sectional data reveal normative age trends in preferences that correspond to the social roles individuals assume at different life stages. Taken together, the results from this work suggest that individuals seek out musical styles that reflect and reinforce their values, personalities, and identities.