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Personality and Uses of Music as Predictors of Preferences for Music

Consensually Classified as Happy, Sad, Complex, and Social

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DOI: 10.1037/a0019210

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2010, Vol. 4, No. 4, 205–213 1931-3896/10/$12.00 DOI: 10.1037/a0019210

Personality and Uses of Music as Predictors of Preferences for Music

Consensually Classified as Happy, Sad, Complex, and Social

Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic Patrick Fagan and Adrian Furnham

University of London University College London

This study replicates the findings of a recent study (Chamorro-Premuzic, Gomà-i-Freixanet, Furnham, &
Muro, 2009) on the relationship between the Big Five personality traits and everyday uses of music or
people’s motives for listening to music. In addition, it examined emotional intelligence as predictor of
uses of music, and whether uses of music and personality traits predicted liking of music consensually
classified as sad, happy, complex, or social. A total of 100 participants rated their preferences for 20
unfamiliar musical extracts that were played for a 30-s interval on a website and completed a measure
of the Big Five personality traits. Openness predicted liking for complex music, and Extraversion
predicted liking for happy music. Background use of music predicted preference for social and happy
music, whereas emotional music use predicted preference for sad music. Finally, males tended to like sad
music and use music for cognitive purposes more than females did.

Keywords: uses of music, personality, trait EI, Big Five, music preferences/tastes

Music is one of the most celebrated yet enigmatic phenomena in
human society. Neanderthals are believed to have engaged in
musical activities over 30,000 years ago (Mithen, 2005), and the
significance of music today is demonstrable in terms of com-
merce—in 2006, worldwide recorded music sales totaled $31
billion and the whole music industry was valued at $130 billion
(International Federation of the Phonographic Industry, n.d.). In-
deed, a large sample survey by Rentfrow and Gosling (2003) found
that music is one of people’s favorite and most enduring past
times. Similarly, 94% of young adult Swedes surveyed by
Bjurström and Wennhall (1991) described themselves as very or
fairly interested in music, and a sample of American adolescents
reported listening to an average of almost 5 hr of music per day
between the ages of 12 and 18 years (Davis, 1985)—A figure
obtained long before the advent of the MP3 players and other
digital media. Hence, it is easy to understand why music has been
the focus of a wide breadth of psychological research (Tramo,
2001; Schellenberg, 2006).
In a recent series of studies (see Chamorro-Premuzic, Gomà-i-
Freixanet, Furnham, & Muro, 2009, for a summary) Chamorro-
Premuzic, Gomà-i-Freixanet, and colleagues (2009) examined
psychometrically assessed (e.g., personality, cognitive ability, in-
terests) individual difference correlates of uses of music, that is,
why people use music in everyday life. Their research showed that
Neuroticism is positively correlated with emotional use of music
(i.e., using music to regulate or manipulate affective states), that
Extraversion is positively correlated with background use of music
Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic, Department of Psychology, University of
London; and Patrick Fagan and Adrian Furnham, Department of Psychol-
ogy, University College London.
Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Tomas
Chamorro-Premuzic, Department of Psychology, Goldsmiths, University
of London, New Cross, London, SE14 6NW United Kingdom. E-mail:
pss02tc@gold.ac.uk
205
(i.e., using music as background to other activities, such as study-
ing, driving, or working), and Openness to Experience is positively
correlated with intellectual or cognitive use of music (i.e., experi-
encing music in a rational way or using it for intellectual stimu-
lation).
Although the above findings have been replicated, quite consis-
tently, across cultures, they provide only preliminary evidence for
the idea that major individual differences underlie different uses of
music and potentially explain how different people use music in
everyday life. First, the “catalogue” of traits that have been exam-
ined in connection to uses of music is far from comprehensive,
which explains why there remains a substantial amount of unac-
counted variance in each use of music. Moreover, it would seem
that individual differences have not been “evenly” examined for
each use of music. For instance, the cognitive/intellectual use of
music has been examined by Openness, IQ, self-assessed intelli-
gence, and typical intellectual engagement (Chamorro-Premuzic &
Furnham, 2007; Chamorro-Premuzic, Gomà-i-Freixanet, et al.,
2009), but the emotional use of music has been linked only to
Extraversion and primarily, Neuroticism. Thus the current study
will examine how the construct of trait emotional intelligence (EI),
which refers to a person’s emotional self-efficacy or their per-
ceived ability to recognize and control their own and others’
emotions (Sevdalis, Petrides, & Harvey, 2007), relates to uses of
music.
Given that trait EI is assessed via self-reports, it is considered a
personality trait, related to, but different from, the Big Five per-
sonality traits (Chamorro-Premuzic, 2007). As such, it is orthog-
onal to the construct of “ability” EI (Warwick & Nettlebeck,
2004), which is concerned with emotional abilities measured
through maximum-performance tests (Brackett & Salovey, 2006).
In the current study, we opted for a measure of trait EI because of
the current limitations associated with the objective measurement
of the broad ability EI construct, no doubt a function of the
subjective nature of emotional experiences (Robinson & Clore,
206 CHAMORRO-PREMUZIC, FAGAN, AND FURNHAM

2002). Trait EI, on the other hand, can be measured reliably via
self-reports and has been found to have significant associations
with a number of criteria over and above the Big Five personality
traits, such as goal self-integration (Spence, Oades, & Caputi,
2004), job competencies (Van der Zee & Wabeke, 2004), and
recognition of facial expressions of emotion (Petrides & Furnham,
2003). That said, trait EI is substantially related to the Big Five
traits of Emotional Stability, Extraversion, and Openness
(Chamorro-Premuzic, 2007), which begs the question of whether
any significant correlation between trait EI and use of music
remains significant when other Big Five traits are considered.
There is currently very little literature relating trait EI to music.
However, as trait EI is negatively correlated with Neuroticism, one
would expect that individuals with higher trait EI would be less
likely to use music for emotional regulation and therefore score
lower on the emotional use of music.
Another area for expansion in the original Chamorro-Premuzic
and Furnham (2007) uses of music study was the fact that self-
reported uses of music may not necessarily correlate with actual
preference for appropriate music, though one would expect that
they would. As discussed, there has been a distinction in research
between musical preferences (e.g., Rentfrow & Gosling, 2003) and
uses of music (Chamorro-Premuzic & Furnham, 2007). Conse-
quently, the present study sought to expand on previous findings
by bridging this gap. This was done by examining participants’
preference ratings for music that could be categorized according to
the dimensions of the Uses of Music Inventory (Chamorro-
Premuzic & Furnham, 2007)— emotional, cognitive, and back-
ground. In the case of emotional use, a limitation was previously
identified in which there was no distinction between positive and
negative affect. Consequently, this study measured preferences for
music representative of both positive and negative emotions. Con-
sidering emotional music use is predominantly associated with
lower Emotional Stability, and that individuals with neurotic ten-
dencies are more susceptible to negative emotional states (Canli et
al. 2001), it was expected that an emotional use of music would
correlate positively with a preference for sad rather than happy
music.
Therefore, the general aim of this study was to replicate
Chamorro-Premuzic, Gomà-i-Frexanet, et al.’s (2009) findings on
the relationship between individual differences and uses of music,
to look at trait EI in relation to these, and also to extend uses of
music to preferences for actual compositions.
As in the Spanish and Malaysian sample replications, structural
equation modeling (SEM) was used to test a model in which
personality traits (specifically Emotional Stability, Extraversion,
Openness, and trait EI) predict uses of music, which in turn,
predict music preferences. The hypothesized model is shown in
Figure 1. As shown, we predicted negative effects of trait EI and
Emotional Stability onto emotional use of music, which in turn,
was expected to have positive effects on both sad and happy song
preferences. Extraversion was predicted to have positive effects on
background music use, which in turn, was predicted to have
positive effects on preference for social songs. Finally, Openness
was expected to have positive effects on cognitive music use,
which in turn, was expected to have positive effects on preference
for complex songs.
Method
Participants
In all, 100 participants (42 males and 58 females) took part in
this study. Opportunistic sampling was used, with the only pre-
requisite being fluency in English. Ages ranged from 15 to 71
years, with a mean of 23.9 (SD ⫽ 7.4).
Procedure and Measures
Participants were recruited over the Internet using emailing and
networking sites such as MySpace and Facebook. The question-
naire was both put together (using “RiddleMeThis”) and hosted
online. Participants completed it wherever they chose and at their
own pace. They were initially briefed, asked to give consent and
informed all data was kept anonymous. After this, they were asked
to provide demographic details (age and sex) to control for their
effects on measured variables. Then they completed, in order, the
following measures.
IPIP. The International Personality Item Pool (IPIP; Goldberg
et al., 2006) consists of 50 items, of which 10 are summed (with

+ sad
- M (emot)
ES
+
-
happy
EI

+ M (back) +
social
E

O +
+
M (cog) complex

Figure 1. Hypothesized model for individual differences, uses of music, and music preferences. N ⫽ 100;
ES ⫽ emotional stability; EI ⫽ emotional intelligence; E ⫽ extraversion; O ⫽ openness; M(emot) ⫽ emotional
use of music; M(back) ⫽ background use of music; M(cog) ⫽ cognitive use of music.
 PERSONALITY AND MUSIC USES AND PREFERENCES
some reverse scoring) to measure each of the Big Five personality
traits: Extraversion, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, Neuroti-
cism and Openness to Experience/Intellect (Agreeableness and
Conscientiousness were not examined in the current study in line
with Chamorro-Premuzic, Gomà-i-Freixanet, et al., 2009). The
items involve questions about a number of typical behaviors and
feelings and are based on a 5-point Likert scale ranging from 1
(very inaccurate) to 5 (very accurate). Although the authors do not
provide norms for comparison, the scale is widely used and has
good reliability and validity (see Goldberg et al., 2006).
TEIQue–SF. The Trait Emotional Intelligence Questionnaire
Short Form (TEIQue–SF; Petrides & Furnham, 2006) was used to
measure global trait EI. This 30-item test is based on a 5-point
Likert scale ranging from 1 (completely disagree) to 5 (completely
agree) to gauge responses to statements such as “I’m usually able
to find ways to control my emotions when I want to.” The item
responses are summed (with some reverse scoring) to give a total
trait EI score for each participant. The measure reports good
reliability and comprehensive cover of the whole trait EI construct
(see Petrides & Furnham, 2006).
The uses of Music Inventory. The Uses of Music Inventory
(Chamorro-Premuzic & Furnham, 2007) was constructed to mea-
sure views about when and why one listens to music. The 15-item
inventory is described in detail in Chamorro-Premuzic, Gomà-i-
Freixanet, et al. (2009).
Music Preferences. Initially, 40 original compositions were
created by an independent composer (a trained jazz guitarist
known by one of the experimenters), divided equally into the
categories of sad, happy, complex, and social. The emotional
valence of compositions tended to be defined as outlined by
Krumhansl (1997): Sad music generally used minor harmonies and
slower tempos, whereas happy generally used major harmonies,
faster tempos, and dance-like rhythms. Complex compositions
were generally defined by a higher density of notes, a more
advanced playing technique, unusual timing patterns, and sophis-
ticated genres such as jazz and blues (Rentfrow & Gosling, 2003).
Social music was intended to represent music that is suitable for
background to other activities (e.g., driving, studying, or working);
hence musical extracts were composed that were emotionally
neutral, consistent, almost monotonous, in tempo and harmony,
and generally nonarousing. These musical extracts were also in-
tended to have little or no overlap with the emotional and cognitive
compositions outlined above.
All compositions were controlled for in terms of length (around
30-s long), volume and instrument (guitar only). Tempo was
controlled for as best possible and did not vary greatly from around
100 bpm; although, as mentioned, there did have to be some
variations to achieve the intended emotional effects. Musical ex-
tracts were composed with the aim of avoiding any particular
genre to ensure they had cognitive, emotional, and social value in
their own right, rather than through cognitive associations such as
personal memories (Meyer, 1956). The pieces were composed
with the intention of keeping the four categories independent so
that, for instance, complex pieces were not sad, happy, nor social
suited. This was done to avoid overlap in composition preferences
between people of different personality types.
Once these 40 pieces had been recorded, they were evaluated by
five peers for their suitability in their relevant category. For each
piece, four questions were posed and responses recorded on a
207
5-point Likert scale ranging from 1 (not a lot) to 5 (very much so).
These questions measured: sadness (“How sad do you find this
music? How likely is it to ‘make someone sad,’ or induce sadness
or a melancholic mood?”), happiness (“How happy do you find
this music? How likely is it to ‘make someone happy,’ or cheer
them up?”), complexity (“How complex do you find this music?
How likely is it to be enjoyed those with refined or sophisticated
musical tastes?”), and social suitability (“How suitable do you find
this music as background music to other social activities, such as
studying, working, or having a conversation?”). Scores from all
five participants were summed to give a score for each musical
extract in each category. The top five highest scoring compositions
in each category were kept for the final study. The Cronbach’s
alpha showed a general increase in reliability after the removal of
the lower rated compositions: from .85 to .93 for sad, .70 to .80 for
happy, .76 to .81 for complex, and .45 to .60 for background.
Across all categories, alpha increased from .74 to .83 (N ⫽ 5 for
all figures). Reliability from this selection phase was thus accept-
able in every category for musical extracts ultimately selected, and
they were consequently used in the final study.
The Music Preferences test included 20 compositions to be
rated—five happy, five sad, five complex, and five social (a
selection of these songs is available at http://www.thefagans
.org.uk/psychol/). For each musical composition, participants were
asked to rate, on the same 5-point scale, the four questions outlined
above. This was done to confirm each composition’s suitability to
its relevant category. Participants were also asked to indicate, on
the same scale, preference for each musical extract by responding
to an additional item (“How much do you like this music?”). This
test took approximately 20 to 30 min to administer. Scores were
computed to give each participant a preference score for each of
the four musical composition categories.
As before, all participants’ scores were summed for each ques-
tion of each composition: When the pieces were ranked according
to their total score for each category, they generally fit as intended.
The top five sad-rated musical compositions were intended to
belong in that category—the same was true of the top five happy
compositions and four of the top five complex compositions. Only
one of the top five background-rated compositions belonged to its
appropriate category. However, Cronbach’s alpha (see the Appen-
dix) for every preference category, including social, suggests good
reliability—alpha values higher than .6 are deemed satisfactory for
5-item scales (Youngman, 1979).
Results
Means, standard deviations, and internal consistencies (Cron-
bach’s alpha) for all composite measures are reported in Table 1.
The Uses of Music values were in line with previous studies, with
means of around 14 and standard deviations in the region of 4 (see
Chamorro-Premuzic, Gomà-i-Freixanet, et al., 2009; Chamorro-
Premuzic, Swami, Furnham, & Maakip, 2009) and all alphas were
acceptable or high. Scores were subsequently standardized to a
mean of 0 and a standard deviation of 1 (z scores).
SEM
SEM was next carried out using maximum likelihood via
AMOS 4.0 (Arbuckle & Wothke, 1999) to: (a) account for the
208 CHAMORRO-PREMUZIC, FAGAN, AND FURNHAM

Table 1 music, as well as from age onto cognitive music use, were added.
Descriptive Statistics for Target Measures This model (shown in Figure 3) fit the data well: ␹2(55, N ⫽
100) ⫽ 71.6, p ⬍ .05, CFI ⫽ .96. As shown in Figure 3, men
Target measure ␣ No. of items M SD tended to prefer sad music and be higher on the cognitive music
Extraversion .90 10 35.4 7.9 use compared to women, whereas age had negative effects on
Openness .85 10 38.8 5.3 cognitive music use.
Emotional stability .88 10 29.9 8.0
Trait EI .91 30 99.21 16.7
Sad music .78 5 15.3 4.1 Discussion
Happy music .73 5 16.1 4.0
Complex music .70 5 15.3 3.8 The present study attempted to replicate past findings on the
Background music .68 5 13.3 3.5 relationship between broad personality traits and uses of music
M(cognitive) .77 5 12.9 4.5 (see Chamorro-Premuzic, Gomaⱊ-i-Freixanet, et al., 2009), as well
M(emotion) .71 5 17.3 4.4 as extending them by examining whether trait EI explains uses of
M(back) .72 5 15.9 4.8
music over and above the Big Five, and whether individual dif-
Note. N ⫽ 100. M (cognitive) ⫽ cognitive/intellectual use of music; M ferences and uses of music explain preferences for different types
(emotion) ⫽ emotional use of music; M (back) ⫽ background use of of music.
music. With regard to replicating the link between personality (the Big
Five) and uses of music (Chamorro-Premuzic, Gomaⱊ-i-Freixanet,
et al., 2009), results were consistent with past studies in that
overlap between different predictors, (b) account for the overlap Extraversion positively affected people’s tendency to use music as
between different criteria, (c) account for variability in preferences background to other activities, Emotional Stability negatively af-
for specific types of music (removing the variance related to fected people’s tendency to use music for emotional/mood regu-
generic preferences, i.e., for all musical extracts), and (d) assess lation, and Openness positively affected people’s tendency to use
the validity of a hierarchical model in which the same factors are music for intellectual stimulation/in a rational or cognitive way.
both predictors and criteria. Missing values (⬍5% per variable, in These effects were significant even when sex and age were taken
line with Tabachnick & Fidell, 2007) were replaced with the series into account (as shown in Figure 3) and are interpreted in line with
mean at the item level—prior to computing the factor scores. Prior Chamorro-Premuzic, Gomaⱊ-i-Freixanet, et al., 2009.
to analysis, variables (factor scores) were standardized across the In regards to trait EI, this construct was found to correlate nega-
whole sample to a mean of zero and unit variance. We used tively with emotional use of music as predicted (see Appendix).
standardized variables in our analysis because personality and However, when taking into account other personality traits, its effects
music preference scores lie on different scales, as suggested by on uses of music were trivial. This is in line with the strong overlap
Loehlin (2004). Next, we examined assumptions of multivariate between emotional intelligence and the Big Five (see Chamorro-
normality by inspecting Mardia’s coefficient (in line with Ullman, Premuzic, 2007), in particular Emotional Stability. Consequently, it
2007), which indicated that assumptions of multivariate normality may be feasible to disregard trait EI when considering other Big Five
were met and therefore, no transformation or normalization was predictors of uses of music, notably Neuroticism. That said, the
required and maximum likelihood was justified as SEM method. current sample is clearly too small to rule out the potential unique
The hypothesized model (shown in Figure 1) did not fit the data contribution of trait EI to explaining use of music.
well:1 ␹2(37, N ⫽ 100) ⫽ 86.7, p ⬍ .01, comparative fit index
(CFI) ⫽ .83. In line with modification indexes (statistical indica- Predictors of Musical Preferences
tors for model fit improvement) and Silvia and MacCallum’s
(1988) recommendations, three theoretically meaningful paths Three types of predictors of music preferences were examined,
were added in the following order, namely: from Openness to namely (from less to more distal) uses of music, personality traits,
complex music, ␹2(36, N ⫽ 100) ⫽ 77.8, p ⬍ .01, CFI ⫽ .85; and demographics (age and sex), with hypothesized associations
␹diff
2
(1) ⫽ 8.9, p ⬍ .01, from Extraversion happy music, ␹2(35, only for the link between uses of music and preference for music
N ⫽ 100) ⫽ 70.2, p ⬍ .01, CFI ⫽ .88; ␹diff 2
(2) ⫽ 16.5, p ⬍ .01, type. Two of the three hypotheses relating to the uses of music
and from background music use to happy music, ␹2(34, N ⫽ predictors of music preferences were supported (i.e., background
100) ⫽ 56.9, p ⬍ .01, CFI ⫽ .94; ␹diff 2
(3) ⫽ 29.8, p ⬍ .01. The use had positive effects on preference for social music, whereas
modified model (shown in Figure 2) fit the data well. As shown, emotional use had positive effects on preference for sad music);
three of the hypothesized paths, namely from trait EI to emotional however, contrary to predictions there were no significant effects
music use, from cognitive music use to complex music, and from of cognitive music use on complex music preference or on emo-
emotional music use to happy music, were not significant. Re- tional music use on happy music preference. Moreover, back-
moval of these paths did not significantly change model fit, ␹2(37,
N ⫽ 100) ⫽ 57.2, p ⬍ .01, CFI ⫽ .95, ␹diff 2
(3) ⫽ 0.3, p ⬎ .05. 1
The following fit indexes were used: chi-square (Bollen, 1989), which
A final model, which added sex and age, was then tested. The
tests whether an unconstrained model fits the covariance/correlation matrix
hypothesized model was the modified model shown in Figure 2 as well as the given model (although nonsignificant chi-square values
minus the nonsignificant paths (which were removed). No paths indicate good fit, well-fitting models often have significant chi-square
from sex or age onto other variables were predicted, but modifi- values); the CFI (Bentler, 1990), which compares the hypothesized model
cation indexes were examined to identify effects of these variables. with a model based on zero-correlations among all variables (values around
On that basis, effects of sex onto cognitive use of music and sad .90 indicate very good fit).
 PERSONALITY AND MUSIC USES AND PREFERENCES 209

sad
-.21* M (emot) .31**
ES
.01

.02 .16*
happy
EI
.34**
.33**
M (back) social
E .25**

.26**
O
.32** complex
-.05
M (cog)

Figure 2. Modified model for individual differences, uses of music, and music preferences. N ⫽ 100; ES ⫽
emotional stability; EI ⫽ emotional intelligence; E ⫽ extraversion; O ⫽ openness; M (emot) ⫽ emotional use
of music; M (back) ⫽ background use of music; M (cog) ⫽ cognitive use of music. All coefficients are
standardized Betas; correlations between ES and E (.31ⴱⴱ), EI and ES (.66ⴱⴱ), EI and E (.41ⴱⴱ), EI and O (.19ⴱ),
M (cog) and M (emot) (.23ⴱⴱ), happy and social (.65ⴱⴱ), happy and sad (.24ⴱ), sad and social (.41ⴱⴱ), sad and
complex (.57ⴱⴱ), complex and social (.19ⴱ), not shown for simplicity. Dashed lines added in the modified model;
dotted lines are nonsignificant hypothesized paths. ⴱ p ⬍ .05. ⴱⴱ p ⬍ .01.

ground music use was found to have a positive effect of preference
for happy music, whereas Extraversion and Openness were found
to have positive effects on happy and complex music preference,
respectively (these effects had not been predicted as the model
hypothesized only indirect effects of individual differences onto
music preferences, via uses of music).
Preference for Sad and Happy Music
Participants’ liking of sad music tended to increase as their tendency to
use music in an emotional way (emotional use of music) increased. We
find it interesting that Emotional Stability had no effects on preference for
sad music even though it affected emotional use of music. This suggests
that the extent to which emotional users of music will prefer sad music is
unrelated to their level of Emotional Stability. Moreover, males showed
higher levels of liking for sad music (irrespective of their level of Emo-
tional Stability and emotional use of music) than did females. Previous
findings suggest that females tend to be more concerned than males
with music’s ability to aid emotional needs (North, Hargreaves, &
O’Neill, 2000) and are also more responsive than males to the emo-
tional effects of music (Coffman, Gfeller, & Eckert, 1995; Panksepp,
1995). Although this study found no gender effect on emotional use
of music, if females are more likely to experience negative emotions
when listening to sad compositions, they may be expected to dislike
sad music more than their male counterparts.

sex -.21*
-.24**
sad
-.26** M (emot) .29**
ES

happy
EI
.16*
34**

M (back) social
E .21* 34**

O .24**
.33** complex
-.23** M (cog)
age

Figure 3. Modified model including sex and age as predictors. Sex coded: 1 ⫽ males; 2 ⫽ females.
Correlations between sex and ES (⫺.28ⴱⴱ), sex and E (.18ⴱ). See note to Figure 2 for other correlations and
abbreviations. ⴱ p ⬍ .05. ⴱⴱ p ⬍ .01.
210 CHAMORRO-PREMUZIC, FAGAN, AND FURNHAM
On the other hand, liking of happy music was positively affected
by individuals’ Extraversion level, which is in line with Rentfrow
and Gosling (2003). These authors found Extraversion to correlate
positively with preferences for their “upbeat and conventional”
music dimension, which they found to be low in negative affect
and high in positive affect—so they can be thought of as similar to
the happy music used here. Explanations for this phenomenon can
be found in the Extraversion facets of both positive emotionality
and low resting levels of arousal. First, if Extraversion is thought
of as positive emotionality (Canli et al., 2001), then it is easy to
imagine that extraverts would be drawn to music that reflects this
aspect of their personality. Rentfrow and Gosling (2003) suggested
that individuals select music that reinforces their personal dispo-
sitions; extraverts may therefore prefer to listen to positive music
as it reflects that part of their character. Second, extraverts’ lower
resting levels of arousal (see above) and higher levels of sensation
seeking (e.g., Zuckerman, Bone, Neary, Mangelsdorf, & Brust-
man, 1972) have been found to be predictive of preferences for
more arousing music (McNamara & Ballard, 1999). Because our
happy music generally fit Krumhansl’s (1997) criteria of having
faster tempos and dance-like rhythms, extraverts may have pre-
ferred them for their attention-grabbing quality. This is echoed by
Rentfrow and Gosling’s (2003) positive correlation between Ex-
traversion and preference for their “energetic and rhythmic” di-
mension.
The effects of Extraversion onto happy music preference also
shed light on a theory proposed by Chamorro-Premuzic and Furn-
ham (2007). In their paper, they suggested that positive or negative
affect in emotional use was primarily driven by intentional mood
regulation—for example, listening to a sad music when one is sad
or to happy music when one is happy. The results of the present
study suggest that the choice of sad or happy music may be
determined not only by mood, but also personality traits (which
reflect aggregate levels of mood). In particular, Neuroticism (neg-
ative emotionality) and Extraversion (positively emotionality) may
be valid markers of people’s general preference for sad and happy
music, respectively. That people would prefer to choose music that
is congruent with their personality, supporting earlier theoretical
claims that individuals actively select environments that reinforce
their attitudes and beliefs (Buss, 1987).
Preference for Complex Music
Although cognitive use of music had no significant effects on
preference for complex music, Openness to Experience did. Thus
open participants were more likely to like complex music, but not
because they used music in a more cognitive/intellectual way. This
association may be indicative of the novelty or unconventional
features of both the music classified as “complex” and the open
personality. It appears, then, that people do not just profess cog-
nitive use because complex music inherently appealing to them.
So, although a number of factors may lead to a cognitive interest
in music, only Openness to Experience seems to determine
whether individuals genuinely appreciate complex music. As
Openness to Experience has been found to correlate with intellec-
tual engagement (Ackerman & Goff, 1994) and intelligence (Ack-
erman & Heggestad, 1997), open individuals could be more likely
than nonopen ones to respectively seek out and retain musical
knowledge. Consequently, those high in Openness may be ex-
pected to have more refined, sophisticated taste in music and show
similar music preferences. The higher intelligence levels that is
emblematic of more open individuals may also mean that open
people are both more willing and able to understand the compli-
cated techniques of advanced performers and richer compositional
structure of complex music, which is in line with the finding that
intelligent people prefer complex aesthetic stimuli more than less
intelligent people do (Barron, 1955; Francès, 1976; Kamman,
1966). Finally, there is of course the point that those high in
Openness to Experience would be more likely to show a prefer-
ence for music with timing, rhythms, and melodies that are less
familiar to them.
Preference for Social Music
As predicted, background use of music had positive effects on
preference for social music. In addition, background use of music
predicted preferences for happy music. Because background use of
music is defined partly by using music in social occasions (one
item was “I enjoy listening to music in social events”), users would
be expected to like music that may impose a positive affect on
people. In line, it has been found that teenagers with few friends
prefer to listen to music that has themes of loneliness (Burke &
Grinder, 1966).
That said, considering the informal distribution of the survey (in
which participants could have been working, talking to friends or
flatmates, or watching TV, while completing the survey), and the
fact that the pieces may have been listened to at the same time as
rating them, all compositions may indeed have been used as
background music in this context. Moreover, the classification of
music as social was the only one that did not clearly replicate the
results of our a priori classification.
In addition to the predicted associations discussed above, the
current results showed that cognitive use of music was affected by
both gender (males more likely to use music in a cognitive/
intellectual way) and age (negatively). Although these associations
are exploratory, they seem consistent with the idea that music is
used to create an external image to others (e.g., Rentfrow &
Gosling, 2003; Tarrant, North, & Hargreaves, 2000), especially in
males, when both playing and listening to music (North et al.,
2000). Along similar lines, evolutionary theory postulates that sexual
selection of males by females depends on factors that are likely to
ensure good genes for the survival of offspring and the ability of the
male to obtain resources (Buss, 1989). One of these overarching
factors is intelligence. Consequently, males may be more likely to
report using music in a cognitive way due to the message of cognitive
ability and inherent attractiveness it conveys to the opposite sex.
With regard to age effects, a recently proposed model of creative
measures (Chamorro-Premuzic, Furnham, & Reimers, 2007) pos-
tulates that individual differences predict creative preferences and
interests, which can lead over time, to creative knowledge and
refined artistic judgment. In this case, a younger age may be
important in promoting greater interest in music in adolescents/
young adults, which in turn, may lead to greater cognitive appre-
ciation of it. However, as people get older, familiarity may cause
a decline in this interest, and consequently, a decrease in cognitive
use of music.
Naturally, the single-wave nature of the current design (which
assessed all constructs at one time rather than longitudinally), as
 PERSONALITY AND MUSIC USES AND PREFERENCES
well as the small, albeit cross-sectional, sample, make these de-
velopmental hypotheses speculative at most. Another effect to
consider is the result that females were more likely than males to
show a general preference for all compositions. Although this
echoes previous findings that females tend to have a more positive
attitude to music (Colley, Comber, & Hargreaves, 1994; Crowther
& Durking, 1982), it may simply be attributed to factors within the
musical extracts composed. All of the music had a moderate tempo
and were played without percussion or distortion, so they may
have consequently fallen into Schwartz and Fouts’s (2003) “light”
category of music, which females were found more likely to prefer
than males—possibly due to it reflecting themes with which fe-
males are more concerned, such as relationships and socialization
(Larson, 1995).
Limitations
Owing to the recency of research into personality and uses of
music and the lack of past studies on the purposely designed
auditory measure of music preferences, the current study is largely
exploratory and suffers from a number of limitations, which could
be addressed by further research.
First, further studies may do well to expand our model by
including a measure of creativity (as suggested by Chamorro-
Premuzic et al., 2009). The current data were obtained by using a
basic web-based survey but more advanced software will enable us
to also include timed, open-ended, text items, such as those used to
measure ideational fluency or divergent thinking processes. In
addition, cognitive ability could also be examined. Both IQ and
creativity are particularly relevant with regard to understanding the
link between Openness and cognitive use of music as well as
improving our prediction of preference for complex music.
Second, the current results cannot reveal the causal direction
underlying many of the associations identified (in fact, only gender
and age effects on other variables can be regarded as causal).
Social cognition theories suggest that chronic exposure to attitudes
in media may lead to greater accessibility (e.g., Bargh, 1984), so it
could be that music preferences are determined by other, unexam-
ined variables like peer influence—and music listened to conse-
quently determines personality traits. Longitudinal studies into
music preferences and personality traits could be carried out to
asses this.
Third, the current analyses via SEM were carried out on a
relatively small sample. There is an extensive literature on the
sample size requirements for SEM, and although even a brief
summary of that literature is beyond the scope of this article, a
number of experts seem to agree that 100 cases are the minimum
required for a design with 10 to 15 variables. Bentler and Chou
(1987) requested five cases per parameter estimates (with our
design that would mean a sample of at least 80 participants); Kline
(1998) considered sample sizes over 100 to be tenable, while both
Loehlin (1992) and Hoyle (1995) recommended at least 100 cases.
Needless to say, we would have welcomed a larger sample size but
collecting the present 100 cases was a time-consuming and effort-
ful venture given the lack of incentives for participants and the
length of the experiment. In the current study, the choice of SEM
(over regression analysis) was driven mainly by the prospect of
testing a theoretical model in which variables are treated simulta-
neously as predictors and criteria, and the variance attributed to a
211
generic factor of musical preferences can be removed. Indeed,
SEM is the appropriate method with multiple-outcome variables
and multiple predictors and intervening variables. Despite the
small sample size used to test this model, it is hoped that publi-
cation of this study will encourage researchers to test this model
with larger samples.
Finally, the results need to be viewed with the consideration
that, due to the nature of the IPIP, there are no norms to compare
the personality traits to. It is possible that the sample used here was
higher in Openness than the general population: Open individuals
were probably more likely to participate in this voluntary experi-
ment. Consequently further analysis should use more rigid sam-
pling methods to obtain a wider range personality profiles. It
would also be important to provide evidence for the test–retest
reliability of the Music Preferences test we employed; this would
no doubt reduce error variance in the endogenous variables of the
model.
Conclusions
Despite these limitations, the current results replicate Chamorro-
Premuzic and Furnham’s (2007) findings with regard to personal-
ity and uses of music, as well as offering valuable insight into the
nature of consequent music preferences. We believe that the cur-
rent results provide support for the growing literature suggesting
that variations in music use and musical taste are to some extent
the reflection of individual differences in personality, and add to it
by suggesting how uses and tastes relate to each other. Moreover,
the current findings also demonstrate how both uses and prefer-
ences can vary as a function of age and gender. Of particular
interest is the implication that choice of positive and negative
affect in music may be determined as much by personality as mood
and that preference for complex or novel music may be driven by
personality. It would be interesting to assess to what extent these
findings can be extrapolated to the wider field of media prefer-
ences, that is, investigate whether individuals select other forms of
media that reflects their own personality traits (Buss, 1987). Ac-
cordingly, our results have a number of applied implications, such
as informing the selection of different kinds of music (and other
media) for different types of consumers; and, from a clinical point
of view, they could guide music-based therapies depending on
individual needs.
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Appendix

Intercorrelations Among Target Measures

Target measure 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13

1. Sexa ⫺.16 .19 .01 ⫺.27ⴱⴱ .02 ⫺.04 .18 .19 .24ⴱ ⫺.23ⴱ ⫺.02 ⫺.00
2. Age .04 .06 .17 .18 ⫺.05 ⫺.09 ⫺.16 ⫺.04 ⫺.14 .11 ⫺.10
3. Extraversion .20ⴱ .31ⴱⴱ .45ⴱⴱ ⫺.06 .21 ⴱ
.14 .05 .16 ⫺.06 .21ⴱ
4. Openness .07 .27ⴱⴱ .14 .04 .29ⴱⴱ ⫺.05 .35ⴱⴱ .16 .02
5. Emotional Stability .66ⴱⴱ ⫺.14 ⫺.12 ⫺.20ⴱ ⫺.14 .08 ⫺.25ⴱ .04
6. Trait EI ⫺.17 ⫺.02 ⫺.07 ⫺.02 .02 ⫺.20ⴱ .06
7. Sad music .36ⴱⴱ .57ⴱⴱ .47 ⴱⴱ
.03 .36 ⴱⴱ
.16
8. Happy music .33ⴱⴱ .72ⴱⴱ ⫺.02 .10 .38ⴱⴱ
9. Complex music .37ⴱⴱ .00 .10 .26ⴱ
10. Social music ⫺.17 .14 .37ⴱⴱ
11. M(cognitive) .23ⴱ .04
12. M(emotion) .08
13. M(back)

Note. N ⫽ 100. M (cognitive) ⫽ cognitive/intellectual use of music; M (emotion) ⫽ emotional use of music; M (back) ⫽
background use of music.
a
1 ⫽ male; 2 ⫽ female.
ⴱ
p ⬍ .05. ⴱⴱ p ⬍ .01.

Received March 22, 2009

Revision received December 18, 2009
Accepted December 30, 2009 䡲

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