Post by Gator on Feb 15, 2019 7:42:38 GMT -5
Music and personality expression are intertwined. People make judgments of others' personalities based on music tastes and many people consider their music preferences to be "social badges" that are more central to their personality expression than books, clothing, food, movies and TV. In fact, in a study on initial impressions over a 6-week period, music was the most frequent topic of conversation between people that were just getting to know each other and was more frequent than any other topic over the first 5 weeks.
Why is music so important? It may be that having similar taste in music leads people to believe they have similar personalities, which in turn facilitates attraction. Sounds reasonable, but that's actually not the case. The link between music and relationship development has to do with similar values and ideals, rather than similar personalities and traits. Across 3 studies, psychologists demonstrated that music taste similarity and social attraction are connected through value similarity. In other words, when participants viewed profiles of others who had similar music tastes, that led participants to believe they had similar values, which then led to increased social attraction (this effect was also found in college roommates that were randomly paired to live together in dorms by the university administration).
Here are a few examples of the types of "values" measured in this research: Conservatism (tradition, conformity and security), self-transcendence (universalism and benevolence), self-enhancement (power and achievement) and openness to change (hedonism, stimulation and self-direction). When the same participants in these studies were asked about general personality traits (e.g. shyness and responsibility), this did not have the same result. It appears that common values and ideals are "the missing link" between similar music taste and attraction.
To summarize, music preferences provide information about a person's core values and people exhibit "musical bonding" early in relationship development through the feeling that they have similar values and ideals. Importantly, this behavior is not unique to Americans, it is found in German and Chinese samples as well.
So, sharing your music selection with a new friend or partner is a great idea, especially if you want to get past more surface-level personality traits. You'll get closer to knowing a person's "soul" with music.
Why is music so important? It may be that having similar taste in music leads people to believe they have similar personalities, which in turn facilitates attraction. Sounds reasonable, but that's actually not the case. The link between music and relationship development has to do with similar values and ideals, rather than similar personalities and traits. Across 3 studies, psychologists demonstrated that music taste similarity and social attraction are connected through value similarity. In other words, when participants viewed profiles of others who had similar music tastes, that led participants to believe they had similar values, which then led to increased social attraction (this effect was also found in college roommates that were randomly paired to live together in dorms by the university administration).
Here are a few examples of the types of "values" measured in this research: Conservatism (tradition, conformity and security), self-transcendence (universalism and benevolence), self-enhancement (power and achievement) and openness to change (hedonism, stimulation and self-direction). When the same participants in these studies were asked about general personality traits (e.g. shyness and responsibility), this did not have the same result. It appears that common values and ideals are "the missing link" between similar music taste and attraction.
To summarize, music preferences provide information about a person's core values and people exhibit "musical bonding" early in relationship development through the feeling that they have similar values and ideals. Importantly, this behavior is not unique to Americans, it is found in German and Chinese samples as well.
So, sharing your music selection with a new friend or partner is a great idea, especially if you want to get past more surface-level personality traits. You'll get closer to knowing a person's "soul" with music.