Wilhelm Busch Music Postcard series (Public domain)

The link between musical preferences and personality is a growing field of research in recent years. Specific preferences tend to be associated with both brain activity and personality traits.

Soundscapes of morality: Linking music preferences and moral values through lyrics and audio is the title of the study recently published in PLOS One, a peer-reviewed open access journal published by the Public Library of Science. A team of scientists at Queen Mary University of London and ISI Foundation in Turin, Italy authored the study that was published in November 2023.

The researchers used Facebook Page Likes to determine profiles of musical preferences for 1,480 users, taking their top five songs to analyze. They acknowledge the limitations of what may only represent a snapshot of an individual’s tastes at any given time.

“Our study provides compelling evidence that music preferences can serve as a window into an individual’s moral values,” stated Dr Charalampos Saitis, one of the senior authors of the study and Lecturer in Digital Music Processing at Queen Mary University of London’s School of Electronic Engineering and Computer Science in a media release.

How do you measure morality?

It’s a good question, and it puts the study and results into perspective. The study used a standard measure called the Moral Foundations Theory or MFT as determined by questionnaires. It uses five innate foundations for an evaluation of morality, based on the idea of virtues and vices:

Care/Harm;
Fairness/Cheating;
Loyalty/Betrayal;
Authority/Subversion;
Purity/Degradation.

Two over-arching moral foundations emerge:

Individualising (prioritizing Care and Fairness) — associated with a liberal perspective;
Binding (prioritizing Purity, Authority and Loyalty) — associated with a conservative perspective.

Of the participants, women scored higher than men in the areas of Care, Fairness, and Purity.

Interestingly, empathy and equality were strongly associated with audio features, as opposed to tradition and hierarchy, which was linked instead to lyrical content of the songs.

The importance of the research itself also emerges from the data. As the study’s authors point out, in today’s world, music is frequently used as part of a calculated campaign for public attention, both for commercial and political purposes. It’s a powerful tool that can be manipulated.

Results

The results were calculated using the information from self-reported questionnaires, along with demographic data, and music preferences, broken down into lyrics and audio. Plotted on a graph, significant correlations emerged.

Lyrically speaking…

Participants who said they were concerned with loyalty, authority and purity preferred artists whose lyrics talked about love, unity and fairness.
The researchers drew a connection between those individuals who valued what they called binding and activities like sports and political rallies — which tend to use music to express messages about victory and power.
That group tended to shy away from songs that expressed violence, sadness or fear.
The participants with values described as individualising preferred lyrics revolving around themes of caring, trust, and anticipation.

Music…

Musically, links to timbre and pitch were established. They used Spotify’s vector of 12 to analyze musical timbres, or overall sound. Modern classical music, as well as experimental music, is part of that mix. A similar 12-tone approach is used to analyze pitch.

Interestingly, those who fell under the binding values group reacted to both timbre and pitch, while the individualising group reacted most strongly to pitch alone.
Participants whose values were described as individualising (care and fairness) preferred music that was acoustic, melodically smooth, and with less dynamic rhythms and overall sound. They also preferred less speech, or more music vs lyrics, and correspondingly, responded more to the acoustic values of the song than the words.
Binding values (authority, purity) were associated with loud, danceable and upbeat musical sounds. Binding values were linked to specific timbre dimensions in the music. Individuals with those values tended to react negatively to timbre dimensions that are often found in genres such as hard rock, metal, and electronic music.
It implies that people who value loyalty, authority and purity tend to prefer artists whose music is more conventional, and that they will tend to shy away from loud and distorted sounds, and lyrics with a rebellious message. They prioritize lyrics over the music.
Participants who displayed binding values tended to prefer the most popular and mainstream artists, implying they are more influenced by social norms, and the opinions of those around them. It underscores the social role that music plays.

Earlier studies have broken down similar results along political party lines. The authors quote a previous study that suggested people with more liberal views enjoyed complicated and reflective music such as jazz, blues and Western classical music. Conversely, conservative and more traditional personalities tend to prefer more traditional music genres such as pop and also religious music.

Final words

“Our findings reveal that music is not merely a source of entertainment or aesthetic pleasure; it is also a powerful medium that reflects and shapes our moral sensibilities,” said Vjosa Preniqi, lead author of the study and a PhD student in Queen Mary’s Centre for Doctoral Training in Data-informed Audience-centric Media Engineering. “By understanding this connection, we can open up new avenues for music-based interventions that promote positive moral development.”

The paper’s authors recommend that further studies focus on these links with social values, given the role they play in decision making.

The study also points out the ethics that come into the picture when AI is introduced, particularly those very common systems that examine online data to determine an individual’s demographics, psychological traits, and preferences.

What happens, for example, if the algorithms that analyze such data determine that some people have views or beliefs that are considered in a negative light? It’s easy to see how the results could be used to discriminate against individuals and groups.

Music listening preferences and psychological traits are used increasingly in fields as diverse as music therapy to customizing playlists and mass communication strategies. The moral parameters evaluated in the study play a key role in how individuals view the society around them.

“Our research has uncovered an important link between music and morality, paving the way for a deeper understanding of the psychological dimensions of our musical experiences,” concluded Vjosa Preniqi. “We are excited to continue exploring this rich and uncharted territory.”