How to Design a Music and Personality Experiment

Does your taste in music reveal information about your personality? Some researchers have found that people who prefer certain styles of music tend to have specific personality traits. However, other studies have not found links between music preferences and personality, so there is still a lot left to learn from doing such studies.

Exploring the connection between musical tastes and personality traits could be a great topic for your own research. Here’s how to set up a psychological experiment on music and personality.

Getting Started

Before you start any psychology experiment, discuss your project with your instructor. You may need to get permission from your school's Institutional Review Board before you can proceed.

Once you get the go-ahead, you'll need to narrow your focus to a specific research question and develop a hypothesis. Then, you can begin the process of developing materials and procedures as well as selecting your study participants.

Key Terms and Definitions

These psychology concepts will be important to know as you’re planning your psychology experiment:

• Operational definitions: This includes the procedures, techniques, or methods you will use to change variables in your study.
• Independent variable: This is the variable in your study that you will change.
• Dependent variable: This is the variable in your study that you will observe to see if it is affected by the independent variable. You may have more than one dependent variable.

Possible Research Questions

• Are fast-paced styles of music (such as dance and pop) linked to specific personality traits (such as extroversion and high self-esteem)?
• Are people who like complex musical styles (such as classical) more creative?
• Are people who prefer intense musical styles (such as heavy metal) more assertive?
• Are people who prefer emotional music (like instrumental soundtracks) more reflective?

Develop Your Hypothesis

Once you've picked a research question, the next step is to come up with a hypothesis.

Your hypothesis is a specific statement that explains what you predict you will find out in your experiment. For example, your hypothesis for your music and personality study could be that:

• Participants who prefer jazz and classical music will score higher on tests of creativity.
• Participants who prefer fast-paced musical styles will score higher on measures of extraversion.

Planning Your Experiment

You need to carefully plan the steps and procedures you will use in your experiment. There are some key practical questions that you have to answer before you can get started.

First, where will you find participants? You could ask your fellow classmates or seek out volunteers in your school or community.

Next, what materials and tools will you need to collect data on musical preferences and personality? You may need music, headphones, and devices for listening.

How will you assess each participant's musical tastes? The easiest method would be to use a simple questionnaire. You can ask participants to rate different musical styles on a scale from one to 10, with one being least preferred and 10 being most preferred.

You also need to determine how you will measure personality. Are you going to look at specific personality traits, such as emotional stability or extroversion? There are different ways you can approach this experiment, so the choice is up to you. For example, you might choose to look at a single personality dimension, like extraversion or introversion.

What questions did you decide to explore in your study? Maybe, "Do introverts tend to prefer a specific style of music?" Or, "Are extroverts drawn to faster-paced musical styles?"

You may choose to look at music tastes within the Big Five personality dimensions. Instead of having to come up with a questionnaire, you could have your participants do an existing assessment such as the Ten Item Personality Measure (TIPI).

Collect Data and Analyze Your Results

Once you have collected all the data for your experiment, it is time to analyze your results.

Did you find any evidence to support your hypothesis? Were the results of your experiment statistically significant?

After performing your analysis, you’ll need to report your results according to the format that your instructor has assigned. For example, you may need to write a psychology lab report or create a bulletin board presentation.

Examples of Music and Personality Studies 

Here are a few studies on music and personality that could serve as inspiration or references as you create your own:

• Greenberg DM, Wride SJ, Snowden DA, Spathis D, Potter J, Rentfrow PJ. Universals and variations in musical preferences: A study of preferential reactions to Western music in 53 countries. J Pers Soc Psychol. 2022;122(2):286-309. doi:10.1037/pspp0000397
• Anderson I. “Just the Way You Are”: Linking music listening on spotify and personality. Social Psychological and Personality Science. 2021. doi:10.1177/1948550620923228
• Ewelina Sielska-Badurek, Sobol M, Katarzyna Okulicz-Kozaryn, Paweł Gołda, Cielecka A. Personality traits in singers performing various music styles and with different singing status. International Journal of Occupational Medicine and Environmental Health. Published online September 25, 2023. doi:10.13075/ijomeh.1896.02099
• Ignacio J. Exploring relations between Big Five personality traits and musical emotions embodied in spontaneous dance. Psychology of Music. 2023. doi:10.1177/03057356221135355
• Qiu L, Chen J, Ramsay JE, Lu J. Personality predicts words in favorite songs. Journal of Research in Personality. 2019;78:25-35. doi:10.1016/j.jrp.2018.11.004