A do re mi encore - A closer look at the personality correlates of music preferences

Through the development of the Short Test of Musical Preferences (STOMP) and a larger theory of music preferences, Rentfrow and Gosling (2003, 2006) have helped guide the way toward understanding the role of music in people's lives, and the relationship between music preferences and personality. The four music dimensions they established in their 2003 study provide a broad-brush look at some of the relationships between music preferences and personality. This study of 83 undergraduates at Guilford College in Greensboro, NC, used the NEO-PI, rather than the Big Five Inventory, which allowed us to examine the six facets that make up each of the Big Five traits as well as those traits themselves, and it looked separately at the music genres that make up the four music dimensions identified by Rentfrow and Gosling (2003). The findings provide general support for Rentfrow and Gosling's work, but they also demonstrate that the personality patterns for the specific music genres differ considerably from one another, even those that fall within the same broad music dimensions. The Openness trait was by far the most robust of the Big Five traits assessed by the NEO-PI, and preferences for some music genres (e. g., folk, international music, and rap/hip-hop) were far more revealing of personality than others (e. g., classical, rock, and electronic).