Music and Culture

We are interested in and want to investigate how personality and culture interact. Specifically—as music is inherently social—we wonder if these interactions manifest in musical preferences and responses to music. Music is part of all known cultures, dating back at least 40,000 years (Conard et al., 2009;  Mithen, 2011). However, it is challenging to study culture and cultural differences, so despite the importance of this question, surprisingly little is known about how music serves different roles in different cultures. 

Our hypothesis pertains to how someone’s culture of origin and personality interact with and manifest as differential music preferences and emotional responses to music. We specifically predict that individuals with high extraversion will prefer energizing music if they were raised in a western cultural context, but that these preferences will be modulated by both personality and culture of origin. 

This is interesting because it will clarify the inter-relations between culture and personality, but in a tractable testbed - music. There are also more prosaic goals of this research—considering the role of personality and culture could lead to more fine-tuned music recommendations for listeners and perhaps even targeted music therapy.