Making music is a practice that mixes gift and also years and years of experience and training of the artists. The work of these professionals can result in tens, hundreds, thousands and even millions of fans, depending on their talent and also on the opportunities they have throughout their careers. In addition to the appreciation that the songs cause in the fans, they also have an effect on the brain of some of us, including our personality.
It's no different in humans, according to a study from the University of Cambridge, which found relationships between musical tastes and people's personalities. According to the study, people who are highly empathetic prefer “soft” music, including R&B/soul, adult contemporary music, and soft rock – while those with more analytical minds tend to prefer “intense” music, such as punk, heavy metal and hard rock.
After conducting a survey with more than 4 participants, personality questionnaires were filled out by these people, who also listened to and evaluated more than 50 songs of different genres. The researchers found that empathetic individuals (“empathizers”) tend to prefer more emotional music, while people with more analytical minds (“systematizers”) tend to like music with greater sonic complexity.
But can the discovery of this relationship help anything? “So what?”, would ask someone more skeptical. If the effectiveness of this study is proven, therapies could be created using music to treat individuals with different personalities. For example people with autism, who often have a below-average level of empathy, but high levels of systematization.
This is the healthy side with the improvement of these studies. Following the line of entertainment, the relationship between musical taste and personality could also help in the indication of songs that can satisfy you. You know those songs you listen to, like, but don't know the name? Maybe you can receive indications and find them again, after all, in theory, it would be possible to identify the rhythms that you like the most. In the end, maybe it's not us who choose our favorite songs, but our subconscious.
• Text written by Diego Rennan from the Eu Sem Fronteiras Team
