Cambridge Ideas: The Music In Me
Studies at the University of Cambridge have revealed that many of us use musical taste both as a means of expressing our own identity, and to form and refine our opinions about other people.
Researchers found that sample groups of subjects regularly make the same assumptions about people’s personalities, values, social class and even their ethnicity, based on their musical preferences.
Rock fans, for instance, are commonly held to be rebellious and artistic, but emotionally unstable. Classical music-lovers, on the other hand, are seen as personable and intellectual, but unattractive and a bit boring.
The studies have been led by Dr Jason Rentfrow, from the University’s Department of Social and Developmental Psychology, who is conducting ongoing research into the links between personality and musical taste.
His work forms the subject of this short film. Find out more about Dr Rentfrow's research here.
About Cambridge Ideas
To mark eight centuries of transformative academic thought we are launching Cambridge Ideas, an ongoing series of audio and video productions that present our cutting edge research together with comment and opinion on matters of global significance.