Music Preferences and Personality Types: An Exploratory Study

Music is a cross-cultural universal, a ubiquitous activity found in every known human culture. The current study explores the association between music preferences and different personality types. This study of 150 adolescents (50 extroverts, 50 introverts, 50 neurotics) from various schools in Chandigarh, used EPQ-R to examine individuals personality traits, and short test of music preference (STOMP) to assess the types of music participants preferred, since STOMP is a westernized tool to assess musical preference, to authenticate adolescents ’musical preference shown on STOMP in Indian setting, further a survey was done to know their musical preferences by making them to listen to Indian Hindi film songs based on ragas and Navarasa approach. The results of this study revealed that there is a significant association found in adolescents ’musical preferences and different personality types, as hypothesized, Extroverts scored high on Upbeat and Conventional music and preferred Happy music, introverts scored high on energetic and rhythmic music and preferred tender music, and neurotics scored high on Intense and Rebellious music and preferred sad music. In the research the distinguishing factors of music preference can subsequently determine certain behaviours and personality traits an individual can potentially possess. Therefore, there is a definite association between one's music preference and personality.