Accounting for taste: Individual differences in preference for harmony

Although empirical research on aesthetics has had some success in explaining the average preferences of groups of observers, relatively little is known about individual differences in preference, and especially about how such differences might covary across different domains. In this study, we identified a new factor underlying aesthetic response—preference for harmonious stimuli—and examined how it varies over four domains (color, shape, spatial location, and music) across individuals with different levels of training in art and music. We found that individual preferences for harmony are strongly correlated across all four dimensions tested and decrease consistently with training in the relevant aesthetic domains. Confirmatory factor analysis revealed that cross-domain preference for harmony is well-represented as a single, unified factor, with effects separate from those of training and of common personality measures.     

Music fan personality stereotyping in a sample of South African young adults

This study aimed to elicit stereotypes about personality characteristics of young adults residing in South Africa, based solely on music genres. Participants were 941 undergraduate students at a South African university. They responded to a number of surveys about music genre preferences and personality traits. Data were analysed for trends and patterns in personality attributions based on music genre preferences. The results indicated that participants hold distinct stereotypes about the personality traits, so that those with who preferred Classical, Blues and Jazz music were seen to display higher openness to experience than comparison groups with other music genre preferences. Those with Rap, Reggae and Folk music genre preferences were stereotyped as artistic and unconventional. Young South African adults appear to use musical preference to define personality.     

Personality and self-reported preference for music genres and attributes in a German-speaking sample

Research of music preferences yielded consistent results about the relationship of music preference, biographic variables, and personality. This study replicates some of these findings in a German-speaking sample (N = 1329). We conducted an online study using self-report assessments. We confirmed the five-factor structure of music genre preference and the three-factor structure of music attribute preference using EFA and CFA. In addition to previous research, we showed that the three-factor structure of music attribute preference is also replicated in self-reported assessments. We examined the relationships of personality and music preferences using SEM. This study contributes to the overall picture of music preference research and provides additional insights into the little-examined field of the relationship of music attribute preference and personality.     

Creativity versus conscientiousness: which is a better predictor of student performance?

This paper examines the extent to which the incremental validity of creative thinking (over and above personality) in the prediction of academic performance may be a function of assessment methods. British university students (N = 307) completed the Alternate Uses Test and Big Five personality inventory at the beginning of the first academic year. Students' academic performance was assessed throughout a 4‐year period via written exams, continuous assessment (tutored seminars) and a supervised dissertation in the final year. Creative thinking was more related to final dissertation marks than to exam and continuous assessment performance (which were associated with Conscientiousness, rather than creative thinking). A follow‐up questionnaire on preferences for different assessment methods revealed that creative thinking was positively related to preference for viva voce (oral) exams, group projects and final dissertation, but negatively associated with preferences for multiple‐choice and essay‐type exams, as well as continuous assessment. Implications are discussed with regard to educational settings, in particular assessment methods. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Music preferences and personality among Japanese university students

Little research has been conducted outside of the European-North American cultural area concerning the personality-based determinants of musical genre preferences The present research investigated the personality profiles and general music genre preferences of 268 Japanese college students. Six dimensions and 24 facets of personality, and 12 music genres, were assessed. Results indicated that, consistent with much previous research, openness (to experience) and particularly the facet of "aesthetic appreciation" were associated with a preference for "reflective" music (jazz, classical, opera, gospel, enka), while one extraversion facet (sociability) was associated with the preference for pop music. Other personality dimensions were less consistently associated with musical preferences, pointing to cultural differences and the need to assess both personality and music genres at more specific levels.     

The functions of music and their relationship to music preference in India and Germany

Is the use of music in everyday life a culturally universal phenomenon? And do the functions served by music contribute to the development of music preferences regardless of the listener's cultural background? The present study explored similarities and dissimilarities in the functions of music listening and their relationship to music preferences in two countries with different cultural backgrounds: India as an example of a collectivistic society and Germany as an example of an individualistic society. Respondents were asked to what degree their favorite music serves several functions in their life. The functions were summarized in seven main groups: background entertainment, prompt for memories, diversion, emotion regulation, self‐regulation, self‐reflection, and social bonding. Results indicate a strong similarity of the functions of people's favorite music for Indian and German listeners. Among the Indians, all of the seven functions were rated as meaningful; among the Germans, this was the case for all functions except emotion regulation. However, a pronounced dissimilarity was found in the predictive power of the functions of music for the strength of music preference, which was much stronger for Germans than for Indians. In India, the functions of music most predictive for music preference were diversion, self‐reflection, and social bonding. In Germany, the most predictive functions were emotion regulation, diversion, self‐reflection, prompt for memories, and social bonding. It is concluded that potential cultural differences hardly apply to the functional use of music in everyday life, but they do so with respect to the impact of the functions on the development of music preference. The present results are consistent with the assumption that members of a collectivistic society tend to set a higher value on their social and societal integration and their connectedness to each other than do members of individualistic societies.     

Listening,Watching, and Reading: The Structure and Correlates of Entertainment Preferences

ABSTRACT People spend considerable amounts of time and money listening to music, watching TV and movies, and reading books and magazines, yet almost no attention in psychology has been devoted to understanding individual differences in preferences for such entertainment. The present research was designed to examine the structure and correlates of entertainment genre preferences. Analyses of the genre preferences of more than 3,000 individuals revealed a remarkably clear factor structure. Using multiple samples, methods, and geographic regions, data converged to reveal five entertainment‐preference dimensions: Communal, Aesthetic, Dark, Thrilling, and Cerebral. Preferences for these entertainment dimensions were uniquely related to demographics and personality traits. Results also indicated that personality accounted for significant proportions of variance in entertainment preferences over and above demographics. The results provide a foundation for developing and testing hypotheses about the psychology of entertainment preferences.     

Personality and aesthetic preference in Spain and England: two studies relating sensation seeking and openness to experience to liking for paintings and music

In two studies, one employing Spanish students and the other English students, questionnaire measures of Sensation Seeking and Openness to Experience were correlated with liking for major music types, several short music excerpts, and eight categories of painting (presented as slides). Inter‐correlations between music preference measures, painting preference, and personality are reported. In both samples, the Sensation Seeking Scale (Form V) and, particularly, the Experience Seeking sub‐scale were associated with a factor contrasting liking for ‘hard rock’ music and ‘violent–abstract’ art with liking for ‘neutral–realistic’ art and ‘easy listening’ music. Several substantial relationships between aesthetics measures and Openness to Experience (from the NEO‐PI‐R) were also found, though mostly in the English sample. The results reinforce the view that personality dimensions such as Sensation Seeking and Openness are important influences on aesthetic judgment. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Similar to and/or Better than Oneself? Singles' Ideal Partner Personality Descriptions

Using the HEXACO Model of Personality, we explored two kinds of ideal partner preferences regarding personality traits, namely, to what extent people prefer partners similar to themselves (similarity preference) and to what extent people prefer partners with more desirable trait levels than themselves (aspirational assortative preference). We conducted five studies (overall N > 900) across four countries (China, Denmark, Germany, and the USA), looking at both HEXACO factors and facets, using both self‐report questionnaires and real‐life data (personal profiles from a dating website), and comprising both student and more heterogeneous samples. The results provided support for both kinds of ideal partner preferences, with important differences across traits. Specifically, similarity preference was supported by all studies concerning all HEXACO traits, and aspirational assortative preference was supported by all four self‐report studies (though not the dating website study) concerning all HEXACO traits except for Openness to Experience. Concerning differences in preferences among the HEXACO traits, similarity preference was particularly pronounced for Honesty–Humility and Openness to Experience, moderate for Agreeableness and Conscientiousness, and less pronounced for Emotionality and Extraversion. Aspirational assortative preference, by contrast, was particularly pronounced for Emotionality, Extraversion, and Agreeableness, moderate for Honesty–Humility, and inconsistent for Conscientiousness. © 2018 European Association of Personality Psychology     

Hypermaturity and Immaturity of Personality Profiles in Adolescents

Five‐year longitudinal data on a cohort of early to middle adolescents (N = 923) and a cohort of middle to late adolescents (N = 390) were used to examine the correlates of hypermaturity (i.e. 12‐year‐olds with a personality profile resembling the profile of an average 20‐year‐old) and immaturity (i.e. 20‐year‐olds with a personality profile resembling the profile of an average 12‐year‐old) of personality. Analyses revealed that girls with high levels of hypermaturity exhibited high levels of internalizing problem behaviour and conflict with parents, while hypermaturity in boys was only associated with internalizing problems. Immature girls had low levels of anxiety and high levels of minor delinquency, whereas immature boys reported low levels of anxiety and high levels of physical maturity. These findings suggest that off‐time personality development is an interesting concept deserving further exploration. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Bigger is better: the influence of physical size on aesthetic preference judgments

The hypothesis that the physical size of an object can influence aesthetic preferences was investigated. In a series of four experiments, participants were presented with pairs of abstract stimuli and asked to indicate which member of each pair they preferred. A preference for larger stimuli was found on the majority of trials using various types of stimuli, stimuli of various sizes, and with both adult and 3‐year‐old participants. This preference pattern was disrupted only when participants had both stimuli that provided a readily accessible alternative source of preference‐evoking information and sufficient attentional resources to make their preference judgments. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Preference or ability: Exploring the relations between risk preference,personality, and cognitive abilities

Key issues in the behavioral sciences are if there exist stable risk preferences that generalize across domains and if these are best measured by revealed risk preference (RRP) in behavioral decision tasks or by surveys eliciting stated risk preference (SRP). We applied network analysis to data from a representative Swedish sample to investigate the relations between RRP, SRP, personality characteristics, and cognitive abilities, using in total over 70 measurements. The results showed that different measures of RRP were poorly intercorrelated and formed a community together with measures of numerical and cognitive abilities. Measures of SRP were weakly correlated with measures of RRP and identified in a distinctly separate community, along with personality characteristics and gender. The ensuing analyses provided support for a model suggesting that RRPs are contaminated by demands on numerical and cognitive abilities. RRPs may thus suffer from poor construct validity, whereas SRPs may better capture people's everyday risk preferences because they are related to more stable traits.     

Adolescent Personality: Associations With Basal,Awakening, and Stress‐Induced Cortisol Responses

The purpose of the present study was to investigate the associations between personality facets and hypothalamic‐pituitary‐adrenal (HPA) axis functioning. Previous studies have mainly focussed on stress‐induced HPA‐axis activation. We hypothesized that other characteristics of HPA‐axis functioning would have a stronger association with personality based on the neuroendocrine literature. Data (n = 343) were used from the TRacking Adolescents' Individual Lives Survey (TRAILS), a large prospective cohort study of Dutch adolescents. We studied the association between facets of Neuroticism, Extraversion, and Conscientiousness and basal cortisol, the cortisol awakening response (CAR), and four measures of stress‐induced HPA‐axis activity. Basal cortisol levels were related to facets of all three personality traits. The CAR and stress‐induced cortisol were not related to personality. Possibly due to its more trait‐like nature, basal cortisol seems more informative than stress‐induced cortisol when investigating trait‐like characteristics such as personality facets.     

The do re mi's of everyday life: the structure and personality correlates of music preferences

The present research examined individual differences in music preferences. A series of 6 studies investigated lay beliefs about music, the structure underlying music preferences, and the links between music preferences and personality. The data indicated that people consider music an important aspect of their lives and listening to music an activity they engaged in frequently. Using multiple samples, methods, and geographic regions, analyses of the music preferences of over 3,500 individuals converged to reveal 4 music-preference dimensions: Reflective and Complex, Intense and Rebellious, Upbeat and Conventional, and Energetic and Rhythmic. Preferences for these music dimensions were related to a wide array of personality dimensions (e.g., Openness), self-views (e.g., political orientation), and cognitive abilities (e.g., verbal IQ).     

Personality Development in Emerging and Young Adulthood: A Study of Age Differences

Early adulthood is a time of substantial personality change characterized by large inter‐individual diversity. To investigate the role of age in this diversity, the present study examined whether emerging adults differ from an older group of young adults in their Big Five personality development. By means of multi‐group latent change modelling, two groups of 16‐ to 19‐year‐olds (n = 3555) and 26‐ to 29‐year‐olds (n = 2621) were tracked over the course of four years and compared regarding four aspects of personality change: mean‐level change, rank‐order change, inter‐individual differences in change, and profile change. In addition, age‐differential socialization effects associated with six first‐time life events were investigated. Analyses revealed substantial age differences in all four aspects of change. As expected, emerging adults showed greater change and diversity in change than young adults. However, the six life events had no age‐differential impact on change in single traits and Big Five profiles. Overall, the results indicate that age differences should be considered even in specific life stages to advance the understanding of personality development. © 2018 European Association of Personality Psychology     

What do People Want from their Jobs? The Big Five,core self‐evaluations and work motivation

If people are differentially motivated on the basis of individual differences, this implies important practical consequences with respect to staffing decisions and the selection of the right motivational techniques for managers. In two different samples (students facing graduation vs full‐time employees), the relationships between personality traits and the preference for job characteristics concerning either extrinsic (job environment) or intrinsic job features (work itself) were investigated. Two personality traits [openness to experience and core self‐evaluations (CSE)] were consistently found to be positively related to the preference concerning work characteristics, and CSE showed incremental validity with regard to intrinsic work motivation factors (e.g., experienced meaningfulness, autonomy). Furthermore, age was differentially linked to those job characteristics. The results are discussed with regards to the optimal Person–Job Fit and the practical utility of the personality constructs.     

Why More Intelligent Individuals Like Classical Music

The origin of values and preferences is an unresolved theoretical problem in social and behavioral sciences. The Savanna‐IQ Interaction Hypothesis, derived from the Savanna Principle and a theory of the evolution of general intelligence, suggests that more intelligent individuals are more likely to acquire and espouse evolutionarily novel values and preferences than less intelligent individuals but that general intelligence has no effect on the acquisition and espousal of evolutionarily familiar values and preferences. Recent work on the evolution of music suggests that music in its evolutionary origin was always vocal and that purely instrumental music is evolutionarily novel. The Savanna‐IQ Interaction Hypothesis would then imply that more intelligent individuals are more likely to prefer purely instrumental music than less intelligent individuals, but general intelligence has no effect on the preference for vocal music. The analyses of American (General Social Surveys) and British (British Cohort Study) data are consistent with this hypothesis. Additional analyses suggest that the effect of intelligence on musical preference is not a function of the cognitive complexity of music. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Personality and Mate Preferences: Five Factors In Mate Selection and Marital Satisfaction

ABSTRACT Although personality characteristics figure prominently in what people want in a mate, little is known about precisely which personality characteristics are most important, whether men and women differ in their personality preferences, whether individual women or men differ in what they want, and whether individuals actually get what they want. To explore these issues, two parallel studies were conducted, one using a sample of dating couples (N= 118) and one using a sample of married couples (N= 216). The five-factor model, operationalized in adjectival form, was used to assess personality characteristics via three data sources—self-report, partner report, and independent interviewer reports. Participants evaluated on a parallel 40-item instrument their preferences for the ideal personality characteristics of their mates. Results were consistent across both studies. Women expressed a greater preference than men for a wide array of socially desirable personality traits. Individuals differed in which characteristics they desired, preferring mates who were similar to themselves and actually obtaining mates who embodied what they desired. Finally, the personality characteristics of one's partner significantly predicted marital and sexual dissatisfaction, most notably when the partner was lower on Agreeableness, Emotional Stability, and Intellect-Openness than desired.     

Late Adolescents' Experiences With and Attitudes Toward Videogames1

A total of 229 late adolescents (a large majority 15 to 19 years of age) completed a questionnaire that assesses a broad range of videogame-relevant experiences, preferences, and attitudes. Videogame playing was found to be a more popular, and a more highly regarded, activity among males than females. Gender differences were also found in participants' ratings of their motivations for playing videogames, their evaluations of particular characteristics of videogames, and their selection of their “most favorite” videogame. The differences between frequent and infrequent videogame players appeared to be limited to differences in the extent to which videogame playing is pursued and evaluated as a positive leisure activity, rather than reflecting broad differences in interest or personality. Some relations were found between participants' self-reported personality characteristics (i.e., self-esteem, empathy, conscientiousness, and introversion) and their attitudes toward videogames.     

Music for the Seasons: Seasonal Music Preferences in College Students

The present research examined music preferences in relation to the seasons: fall, winter, spring, and summer. Across two studies, male and female college students (N = 232 and 199) were primed to think about the seasons and indicate their music preference from Rentfrow and Gosling’s (2003) music classification scheme. Participants were predicted to prefer reflexive and complex music when primed with fall/winter and energetic and rhythmic and upbeat and conventional music when primed with spring/summer. Study 1 had participants read winter or summer season scenarios and Study 2 had participants write their own fall, winter, spring, or summer seasonal experiences. Overall, results were consistent with predictions for the reflexive and complex and energetic and rhythmic classifications, indicating an environmental influence of musical preferences.