Friday, September 12, 2008

Musical taste linked to personality

I came across this article on the BBC news website. Professor Adrian North of Heriot-Watt University has carried out a study which set out to see if there is any correlation between musical taste and personality. No, Wilhelm, don't knock it yet. It could be something to it. Let's take us for example. My affection for blues is well know, and according to the results, I'm typically "High self-esteem, creative, outgoing, gentle and at ease". True that! You, on the other hand, is into heavy metal and classical music, so I gather you must be "Low self-esteem, creative, not hard-working, not outgoing..." and "...introvert and at ease". That's sooo you: A lazy bastard with no self-confidence, shy and stay in-doors all the time. But at least you're at ease with your position. Don't know why you are creative, I guess professor North just added that so your life shouldn't look all too miserable. Ok, so maybe I was a bit selective when choosing personality features for you, but still. :-D

Seriously, this is another completely waste of goverment fundings again, if I may say so. Just let us review the findings:


(1) Everybody is creative. At least if you listen to music (and in the reseach, the term music includes dance), which is about 99% of the worlds population. Except if you listen to chart-pop, then you're not creative, but that goes without saying


(2) Everybody is hard-working, except for reggae (must be the weed), indie (must be the reggae influence) and rock/heavy metal (must be those indie renegades).


(3) The only ones with low self-esteem is Indie (not sh*t, listen to the lyrics) and rock/metal (those pesky emo's!)


(4) Everyone with the exception of Classical, Opera and Rock fans are outgoing.


(5) If you're introvert, you are listening to classical music.

But the worst part of this study: They put country and western in the same genre, and they left out the music with the best personality of them all: Polka!

15 comments:

Unknown said...

ah ah ah
good one Anders, I almost thought that was true

Unknown said...

Damn it, it is !

Anders said...

Care to share your taste in music, pigeon?
:-D

Wilhelm said...

..I'm officially appalled by the fact that this dude got funding - public funding no doubt - to do this research.

Pigeon has told me a tale of some douchebag taking his doctorate on the number of commas or something in the works of Alexandre Dumas versus some other writer, and for the first time since I heard that, I've held the thought that; Hey; it could've been worse - he could have wasted taxpayer money on a study of taste in music versus personality.

Wilhelm said...

Some specific comments to the results:

Classical Music: High self-esteem, creative, introvert and at ease

Interesting, considering that concert halls for classical music are where you're likely to run into socialites. Same with Opera. How does that work with being introvert?

Country: Hardworking, Outgoing

...considering that country music _also_ prevails among true-blue rednecks in singlewides, I'm somewhat sceptical towards this claim.

Dance: Creative, outgoing, not gentle

Creative? Dance music is when you add some more drums to an already existing song. Maybe have some no-talent semi-nekkid girl "singers" double up the chorus at 2xBPM. Or even worse; add "Ding Ding" to an existing song and repackage it as Crazy Frog. Isn't this the antithesis of creativity? Is this one of them "opposites attract" things that Paula Abdul kept going on about?

Bollywood: Creative, Outgoing.

Again; statistically, the vast majority of Bollywood fans would have to reside in countries where the expected workload is way higher than in Western Europe. So why doesn't the epithet "Hard-Working" show up here?

Is it possible that this dude has just repackaged common stereotypes as science?

Anders said...

...you're just pissed off because you're not into blues, Wilhelm. :-)

I don't think this survey ranges across borders; it seems to be limited to Great Britan or Scotland. And the credibility left in this study is thoroughly crushed in the last paragraph: "The study is continuing and Prof North ... is still looking for participants to take part in a short online questionnaire."

Yeah, an online survey is the best way to get a statistically representative selection and sound scientific data.

Wilhelm said...

I don't think this survey ranges across borders; it seems to be limited to Great Britan or Scotland.

Yeah; 'cause the word on the street is that immigrants from India or Pakistan are less hard-working than hooligans. Moreover, they've always got the plum jobs where they don't have to work long hours, right?

Wilhelm said...

You, on the other hand, is into heavy metal and classical music, so I gather you must be "Low self-esteem, creative, not hard-working, not outgoing..." and "...introvert and at ease". That's sooo you: A lazy bastard with no self-confidence, shy and stay in-doors all the time. But at least you're at ease with your position. Don't know why you are creative, I guess professor North just added that so your life shouldn't look all too miserable.

They sure got me pegged, though. That's me alright :-)

Anders said...

They sure got me pegged, though. That's me alright :-)

Yeah, you should go right to prof. North's website and fill out his online form to help him verify the findings..

Unknown said...

Yeah, you should go right to prof. North's website and fill out his online form to help him verify the findings..

If all the active members of this forum could do the same, that would be great to increase the dataset of those "scientists" by at least 50% !!

Anders said...

If all the active members of this forum could do the same, that would be great to increase the dataset of those "scientists" by at least 50% !!

I just want to know one thing: Who of the members of this board is into Bollywood? If we are the same size as the dataset, we are a statistical significant group and thus somebody must listen to Bollywood. It this why you have refrained from revealing your taste in music, pigeon?

Wilhelm said...

I was also refering to the "true-blue rednecks in singlewides". I'm sure Scotland also have a large population of redneck imigrants as well. Look for the Wee' Alabama disctrict in Glasgow, and you'll find large lawns with old car wrecks and trailparks in the middle of the city...

No; the equivalent would be the Irish :-)

Wilhelm said...

If all the active members of this forum could do the same, that would be great to increase the dataset of those "scientists" by at least 50% !!

Come on now, Pigeon - that's a bit unfair. I'm sure that literally dozens of people - friends and relatives mostly - have filled out his online form several times each.

Unknown said...

we are a statistical significant group and thus somebody must listen to Bollywood. It this why you have refrained from revealing your taste in music, pigeon?

guilty

Wilhelm said...

ah ah ah

Why do you laugh in reverse, Pigeon?