# Personality characteristics (including intelligence) and music tastes **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [September 23, 2012, 2:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/personality-characteristics-including-intelligence-and-music-tastes/635559 "2012-09-23T02:11:28Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 19\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Simple\_Linctus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Simple\_Linctus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Simple_Linctus)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2012, 2:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/personality-characteristics-including-intelligence-and-music-tastes/635559/1 "2012-09-23T02:11:28Z")
Has any link been shown between any personality characteristics (I’m most interested in intelligence but anything else would be interesting) and taste in music? Similarly has any link been shown to be unlikely with respect to any personality characteristics? Extend the above question to anything about the human, e.g. do men or women, or brown or blue eyed people, have different predictable tastes that can be shown to be not to do with culture? (Question inspired cause I think metalheads are far more intelligent than your average pop fan, but I want to hear about more general research) ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2012, 2:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/personality-characteristics-including-intelligence-and-music-tastes/635559/2 "2012-09-23T02:56:43Z")
I don’t think it’s so easy to separate cultural and personal influences. When I consider my own taste(s) in music, I can trace it down to many different influences. The combination of these influences may be unique. ---
**Author:** ![ultrafilter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/3d9bf3/32.png) [@ultrafilter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ultrafilter)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2012, 3:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/personality-characteristics-including-intelligence-and-music-tastes/635559/3 "2012-09-23T03:38:35Z")
There’s clearly some substantive difference between people who just listen to whatever’s on the radio and people who actively seek out other music, but I kinda doubt there’s any other strong association. ---
**Author:** ![Kenm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/bc79bd/32.png) [@Kenm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kenm)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2012, 4:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/personality-characteristics-including-intelligence-and-music-tastes/635559/4 "2012-09-23T04:10:12Z")
> [@Simple\_Linctus](#): > > . . . do men or women, or brown or blue eyed people, have different predictable tastes that can be shown to be not to do with culture? I doubt it. I like acoustic jazz recordings (pre-electrically recorded). What colour are my eyes? 🙂 P.S. Not the smilies’. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![njtt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecd19e/32.png) [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2012, 5:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/personality-characteristics-including-intelligence-and-music-tastes/635559/5 "2012-09-23T05:51:39Z")
> [@Simple\_Linctus](#): > > I think metalheads are far more intelligent than your average pop fan :dubious: Not a very widely shared opinion, I think. (I doubt whether even most metalheads believe it. I doubt whether _anybody_ who is not a metalhead believes it. Headbanging and intelligence don’t really seem likely to be positively correlated.) ---
**Author:** ![Ambivalid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a5b964/32.png) [@Ambivalid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ambivalid)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2012, 6:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/personality-characteristics-including-intelligence-and-music-tastes/635559/6 "2012-09-23T06:05:51Z")
> [@Simple\_Linctus](#): > > (Question inspired cause I think metalheads are far more intelligent than your average pop fan, but I want to hear about more general research) Lemme guess…you like pop music. ---
**Author:** ![Simple\_Linctus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Simple\_Linctus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Simple_Linctus)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2012, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/personality-characteristics-including-intelligence-and-music-tastes/635559/7 "2012-09-24T20:40:08Z")
semi-related thread I have found: [Personal morality and loving crass death metal - Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share - Straight Dope Message Board](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=666430) ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2012, 1:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/personality-characteristics-including-intelligence-and-music-tastes/635559/8 "2012-09-25T01:43:09Z")
I think this one will float better in IMHO rather than General QUestions. MOved,. **samclem**. Moderator ---
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2012, 1:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/personality-characteristics-including-intelligence-and-music-tastes/635559/9 "2012-09-25T01:49:26Z")
To be honest, all of the truly intelligent people who I know listen to a genre of music that was recorded between say 1965 and 1978 (ish). I really doubt that new university graduate engineers are listening to Pink Floyd or The Beatles much. I doubt that a preference for Taylor Swift versus The Doors correlates well with intelligence quotients. ---
**Author:** ![Leonard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/a6a055/32.png) [@Leonard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leonard)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2012, 2:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/personality-characteristics-including-intelligence-and-music-tastes/635559/10 "2012-09-25T02:02:52Z")
I doubt you’d see much difference with the tastes defined so broadly as by genre. I do wonder what you would see if you got more specific. Like, say, if you compared Rush fans to AC/DC fans. I have this nagging feeling there might be some difference. ---
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2012, 2:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/personality-characteristics-including-intelligence-and-music-tastes/635559/11 "2012-09-25T02:09:31Z")
> [@Leonard](#): > > I doubt you’d see much difference with the tastes defined so broadly as by genre. I do wonder what you would see if you got more specific. Like, say, if you compared Rush fans to AC/DC fans. I have this nagging feeling there might be some difference. How so? Are you serious? ---
**Author:** ![monstro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba9def/32.png) [@monstro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/monstro)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2012, 2:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/personality-characteristics-including-intelligence-and-music-tastes/635559/12 "2012-09-25T02:24:21Z")
Some people are not fans of anyone specific genre. Their typical playlist may contain everything from Kanye West to Philip Glass. Perhaps such people were not as plentiful back in the olden days before internet downloads. But now it is possible to be a fan of just about anything. I wonder if there’s something to be said for the diversity of one’s music library. Someone who has a little bit of knowledge about a lot of different genres would be more impressive to me than someone who is fixated exclusively on one genre. But this would correlate more with degree of cultural exposure than intelligence. An innately inquisitive person will tend to have high exposure, but a dullard with a big social circle can have this too. ---
**Author:** ![Leonard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/a6a055/32.png) [@Leonard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leonard)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2012, 3:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/personality-characteristics-including-intelligence-and-music-tastes/635559/13 "2012-09-25T03:04:42Z")
> [@Leaffan](#): > > How so? Are you serious? Why wouldn’t I be serious? I can’t see how there wouldn’t be significant differences between those 2 groups in the aggregate. You don’t think there would be? ---
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2012, 3:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/personality-characteristics-including-intelligence-and-music-tastes/635559/14 "2012-09-25T03:11:26Z")
> [@Leonard](#): > > Why wouldn’t I be serious? I can’t see how there wouldn’t be significant differences between those 2 groups in the aggregate. You don’t think there would be? No. I like them both. In fact, as embarrassing as it is to admit for a Canadian, I probably like AC/DC more. Well, that is if you’re talking about Bon Scott AC/DC. Brian Johnson AC/DC was really good, but I prefer the original. Anyway, I like Rush too. Your point was, if I’m not mistaken, is that there may be an intelligence correlation between Rush fans and AC/DC fans? I can’t support that theory. ---
**Author:** ![Leonard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/a6a055/32.png) [@Leonard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leonard)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2012, 4:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/personality-characteristics-including-intelligence-and-music-tastes/635559/15 "2012-09-25T04:07:43Z")
> [@Leaffan](#): > > Your point was, if I’m not mistaken, is that there may be an intelligence correlation between Rush fans and AC/DC fans? I can’t support that theory. That wasn’t quite what I meant, but if I had to guess…I’d guess there probably is. I’m not going to claim it would be a huge difference, but I’m a fan of both, too, and have seen their crowds. Sure, there’s some overlap, but I think there’s a noticeable difference. What I really meant, was a difference in the number of introverts vs. extroverts. Surely you can agree that Rush fans are more introverted than AC/DC fans. ---
**Author:** ![The\_wind\_of\_my\_soul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ecc23a/32.png) [@The\_wind\_of\_my\_soul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_wind_of_my_soul)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2012, 12:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/personality-characteristics-including-intelligence-and-music-tastes/635559/16 "2012-09-26T12:47:43Z")
> [@monstro](#): > > Some people are not fans of anyone specific genre. Their typical playlist may contain everything from Kanye West to Philip Glass. Perhaps such people were not as plentiful back in the olden days before internet downloads. But now it is possible to be a fan of just about anything. > > I wonder if there’s something to be said for the diversity of one’s music library. Someone who has a little bit of knowledge about a lot of different genres would be more impressive to me than someone who is fixated exclusively on one genre. But this would correlate more with degree of cultural exposure than intelligence. An innately inquisitive person will tend to have high exposure, but a dullard with a big social circle can have this too. I’ve come across people who are quite proud of the diversity of their musical library. However, once I hang out with these people a bit more, I usually discover that even if they own music of several different genres, they tend to listen to a certain genre the most. That’s certainly my personal experience. (I mean, I don’t have a huge variety of music, but I certainly listen to more than one genre.) My favorite genre is country music, but I have a bit of rock, pop, techno, hip hop, etc. for the times when I just get tired of listening to country. I also imagine most people like different music for different circumstances, e.g., having a different type of music in the background while relaxing than would be playing during an intense workout. ---
**Author:** ![MostlyClueless](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba9def/32.png) [@MostlyClueless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MostlyClueless)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2012, 12:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/personality-characteristics-including-intelligence-and-music-tastes/635559/17 "2012-09-26T12:57:34Z")
The title “music that makes you dumb” seems misleading to me, but the chart is interesting: [http://img.labnol.org/files/music-that-makes-you-dumb.png](http://img.labnol.org/files/music-that-makes-you-dumb.png) Source: [Your Taste in Music Can Reveal How Smart (or Dumb) You Are - Digital Inspiration](http://www.labnol.org/internet/music-taste-linked-to-intelligence/7489/) ---
**Author:** ![tomcar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7993a0/32.png) [@tomcar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomcar)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2012, 1:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/personality-characteristics-including-intelligence-and-music-tastes/635559/18 "2012-09-26T13:26:53Z")
I do think that alot of extremely technical heavy metal is more appealing to left-brained people. Its very unsentimental and not emotionally satisfying. The connection is more through the intellect than through the “heart.” So if you are going by current music scenes, I agree to some extent. ---
**Author:** ![Krouget](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b38774/32.png) [@Krouget](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Krouget)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2012, 1:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/personality-characteristics-including-intelligence-and-music-tastes/635559/19 "2012-09-26T13:51:15Z")
> [@Simple\_Linctus](#): > > Has any link been shown between any personality characteristics (I’m most interested in intelligence but anything else would be interesting) and taste in music? Personality characteristics linked to music? Sure, I think there are links out there which exist, but one has to be very careful with prejudices. Music has strong links to culture, and so in a number of situations, you can understand _some_ collective traits of certain people. But, again, care must be taken to avoid generalizations…interestingly enough, assumptions about music can lead to a lot of _unintelligent_ discussion, lol. That said, I don’t believe there is any strong or direct link between intelligence and musical preference. Both are highly subjective, and as alluded to above, a lot of it is tied to culture, and by extension, exposure. Also, where would a line be drawn, between, say, someone who appreciates a given sound, but doesn’t actively seek out and listen to the music? In a nutshell, while some music may be more complex than others, understanding it demonstrates one level of intelligence, but actively liking it, doesn’t necessarily say much.