I recently stumbled upon an article while reading BBC News, claiming that a psychology professor in Scotland has linked a person's musical taste (by genre) to aspects of their personality.
Unfortunately for this prof, I play a lot of music, like a lot of different music, have a psychology degree, and immediately see multiple problems with his work. Before I drop some scientific method in your face, let's take a look at Professor Adrian North's weighty claim.
The study in question consisted of surveying 36,000 individuals with 104 questions about different types of music and aspects of their personality. The results state, among other things, that classical music fans are introverts, while jazz listeners are outgoing; reggae audiences are gentle, while those who listen to dance music are not gentle; hard rock fans have low self-esteem, while those who enjoy Top 40 Pop have high self esteem. Pretty interesting stuff which makes sense, initially. I do have to hand it to professor North; 36,000 participants in a pysc test is a very large number, and should provide a high level of reliability in the study. But for those of us who think critically about psychology, reliability is not the same as validity. In other words, a study can be very reliable, and wrong. Reliably wrong.
The first problem with our study here, is that over-generalized claims are being made, without any specific data to support them. This may be a bigger problem with the media than with science, but it is incorrect to say that "If you like heavy metal, you have low-self esteem". One could claim that 96.8% of heavy metal fans have low self esteem, but blatant over-generalizations are bad for science and people's perceptions alike.
Second, the personality aspect of the study is relying on self-report data. If I am taking a survey the day after getting fired, losing my mortgage, and finding out that my wife wants a divorce: of course I will self-report that I have low self-esteem! Similarly, on a normal day, most people want to portray themselves as outgoing and positive, regardless of the study's implications. A participant will either make themselves look good, or find reasons to make themselves look bad, very rarely being objective and honest about their condition. This is known as participant bias, or the demand characteristics of a test.
Third and most importantly, no correlative direction can be assumed in any study such as this. In a statement that probably urged me to write this post, prof. North says:
"If you know a person's music preference, you can tell what kind of person they are, who to sell to."
This is simply outrageous. To "prove" that a person likes a certain type of music because of their personality, or that they have certain personality traits because of the music they listen to, is preposterous. As scientists, all we can say is that X percentage of rap fans are X personality, and refine our hypothesis for the next study. That is the scientific method itself. The fact that North then brings in music marketing, claiming record labels could use his questionable claims to target consumers, leaves me stunned and slightly sickened.
Psychology aside, North's results don't make much musical sense, either. I know plenty of people who like jazz and classical, but according to North, these reflect opposite personality types. If reggae fans are gentle, dance fans not gentle, then what personality traits are present in fans of "dance-hall", a music that combines reggae and dance influences? Top 40 fans apparently have high self esteem, heavy metal fans low self-esteem... but I know plenty of hard rock songs that make it to the Top 40 charts!!!
The problem is, I want to agree with professor North. In all areas of life, it is much easier to come up with stereotypes because it helps us define and navigate the world we live in without really thinking about it. In reality, all music fans are individually different and while we can come close to generalizing, we must provide statistics based on unbiased data. Until Mr. North can do that, I suggest he take a hard look at the science he is distributing to the media for popular release.
I'll close with some unrelated statistics, and unlike North, let you interpret the results:
We depend on wind and solar research to show us how to break away from our "addiction to oil". Congress has voted 8 times this year to keep giving tax subsidies to the companies involved with this research. Barack Obama showed up and voted yes, 3 of these 8 times. John McCain showed up exactly zero times, including one occasion where he was in Washington, and the motion failed, by a count of exactly 1 vote...
What kind of music do you think John McCain listens to???
4 comments:
Why Alaskan folk tunes of course!
And in regards to the study. . .obviously they found correlations between music and personality, it's not hard to create surveys, especially self report ones, that will generate data reflecting the results you are hoping to achieve!
Our collegiate psychology career was primarily focused on how to generate and word questions such that they yielded quantifiable, not necessarily relevant, results!
If you want to prove that music is related to 'personality,' all you have to do is define the personality characteristics in question so broadly and distinct from one another that you can predict the results. . .then go out and let people fill in the blanks you've provided for them.
It is not fascinating that these personality characteristics uncovered in this study match so well with the genres they are said to be associated with. I mean, would you argue with the fact that most country western fans could be described as hard-working versus the not-hard-working character of many reggae patrons?! Sure it sounds 'biased' but music does, to some degree, dictate ones way of life and vice versa!
What I find ridiculous is that these scientists lay claim so their, what, six characteristic formula, as a basis for understanding personality! The article should be more appropriately worded to suggest that "Musical Tastes are Linked to Self-Perception of Behavioral Characteristics," certainly not personality; an extremely broad and wholly un-quantifiable concept. I mean sure, the big five or whatever manages to break it down well enough for it to be taught it texts books but then use that as a rubric for measuring musical preference. . .not an unknown set of dimensions developed for the sole purpose of publishing an article!
It's the academic push towards quantifiable results and 'publishable' articles such as this that has driven psychology away from the human-centric field it once was to a manipulatable tool that drug companies and advertisers have at their disposal!
Any 'psychologist' wasting their time on such a study is a joke. . .do something positive and contribute to your field, don't pander to those reading the front page of a newspaper! If you want to learn more about music, study the ways that it can be used to help people! Music therapy s a growing yet still undeniably unrecognized field of psychology that has proven to be very successful in a number of ways!
Crap like this is a waste of the 'scientist's' and reader's time. . .
P.S. Beatles tunes have been linked to aiding people in memory recall!!
Where did you find that McCain fact at the end?
before i drop some scientific method in your face. ha. blogging is real the thing to do these days. and pack it up
The McCain fact at the end comes from an NPR piece; if it's on the radio it's true, right?
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