Psychology Today48%
How Your Personality Affects the Way You Listen to Music 7%
By Susan Krauss Whitbourne PhD56% ABPP53%
7/11/2026, 12:31:32 PM
BS Summary: This article contains 1 faulty reasoning type, including Attempt to Sell a Product or Service, with Attempt to Sell a Product or Service as the most egregious example at 0.8% saturation with 9 hits. Analysis detected 9 faulty-reasoning hits from 1,074 analyzed words, generating a BS Score of 23.9% and a BS Rank of 7% (13,414 of 14,328 articles). This article is better (less manipulative) than 93.60% of the article peer group.
Susan Krauss Whitbourne PhD, ABPP
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Music is a central part of many people’s lives but what personality factors affect how we listen?
A new study shows who’s most likely to listen to what kind of music, and how.
By understanding what you seek in your musical choices, you can gain important self-insights.
You’ve argued with your significant other, and now you find yourself in need of comfort.
Putting on one of the songs you both enjoy, you start to feel better.
The song captures your feelings of distress but also gives you hope.
People listen to music for a multitude of reasons, from the aesthetic to the emotional.
But music can also serve a social function, connecting us to others.
Listening to that song with your partner could completely change the way you interpret it.
Or you may have another tune that you save for special times with your friends.
Although the individual and the social reasons aren’t mutually exclusive, maybe one weighs more heavily in your own emotional experiences than the others.
Personality Types and Music Listening Preferences
It’s probably safe to say that the desire to listen to music is nearly universal.
There may be some people who don’t find any pleasure in music, but they are few and far between.
Judging by the number of music outlets, from symphony concerts to online streaming services, music and the people listening to it are everywhere.
But what drives the desire to listen not just to music but to music in specific circumstances?
According to a new study by the University of Jyväskylä’s Alessandro Ansani and colleagues (2026), although “personal listening devices and the frequent use of headphones” argue for the advantages of solo entertainment, “there is also a continuous demand for and interest in … sharing musical experiences with others” (p.
1).
Oddly enough, they go on to observe that there is no prior research on the extent to which an individual’s personality might influence people’s preferences for one or the other.
It might strike you as somewhat obvious that introverts prefer to listen to music in solitude and that extroverts prefer company.
Then there are the highly neurotic, who prefer to ruminate alone to lyrics that soothe their sadness.
Less obvious, as the authors point out, is the role of what’s called a social- empathetic cognitive style.
People with this quality would prefer to be with others, but the opposite, or “systemic,” prefers quiet seclusion.
Putting Personality to the Test in Musical Preferences
With no or only a little relevant background literature to draw on, the Jyväskylä team decided to generate their own items by reviewing a series of standard steps in the scale-development process.
The nine items that formed the final set in what Ansani and colleagues call the “Individual and Social Music Listening Scale (ISMUS-LI) are listed below.
Rate yourself from 1 (strongly disagree) to 6 (strongly agree) on each:
Individual Preference:
Listening to music gives me strong feelings when I am alone.
I reserve my favorite tunes for moments of solitude.
Solitary moments make my favorite songs more special.
When I listen to music on my own, I feel like I am “one” with the music.
I really enjoy listening to music alone in a room.
Listening to music with friends enhances the enjoyment.
For me, music is a social experience.
I value the social connection of music as much as the music itself.
I find music more enjoyable when my friends are with me.
The authors also took musical preferences, or genres, into account, with the following four categories:
blues, jazz, world music
punk, metal, alternative/rock
rap, R&B, reggae, dance, funk, new age
religious, gospel, opera, classical, country.
Overall, people in the online international sample of 179 adults (average age 33 years) preferred listening to music alone rather than with others.
However, there was a positive correlation between age and wanting to listen to music with others, potentially supporting the “developmental need of young people to use music for solitary exploration of their developing self- identity ” (p.
12).
As predicted, people high in extraversion preferred social listening situations compared with listening on their own.
People high in neuroticism preferred to be by themselves when listening to music.
An additional bonus finding relates to preferences shown by those with individual versus social listening patterns.
People who like to listen with others preferred the “trendy and danceable” genres that included pop, rap, dance, and R&B.
As the authors concluded, “social listening resonates well with being a musical omnivore” (p.
12).
Personality Essential Reads
What Personality Reveals About Musical Choices
Holding it Together: Three Ways to Shape Your Life Story
Your Music Listening Profile
The findings of the Ansani and team study suggest that your personality may spill over in unexpected ways into your musical tastes and choices of who (if at all) your listening companions are likely to be.
Not only do extraverts like to get together and chat in social settings, but they also enjoy the company of others while doing so.
Introverts and those high in neuroticism seem to need alone time when listening to music, which, based on the study’s findings, is likely to carry more meaning and opportunities for self-reflection.
Even when they go to listen to music socially—for example, a classical orchestra concert—those high in introversion may look for different qualities in the experience; rather than going there to see and be seen, the music itself will be the main draw.
To sum up, getting the most out of musical experiences may depend as much on the quality of the performance as on the role it serves in your life.
Whether it’s having the opportunity to think and reflect versus dance and party, your personality will help you derive the most fulfillment from this key area of your cultural life.
Ansani, A., Kreutz, G., & Saarikallio, S.
(2026).
Development and validation of the individual and social music listening scale (ISMUS-LI).
Personality and Individual Differences , 256 , 1–14. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2026.113736
Susan Krauss Whitbourne, Ph.D. , is a Professor Emerita of Psychological and Brain Sciences at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.
Her latest book is The Search for Fulfillment.
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4speakers12%attributed speech948writer words
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0%flagged-word coverageAlessandro Ansani
79 attributed words63% of attributed speech0.9% writer coverage
Attempt to Sell a Product or Service-0.9 pts
Writer 0.9%Alessandro Ansani 0%
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