The Role of Social Identity on Musical Preference 4.29.14
1. The Role of Social Identity
on Musical Preference
Lorenza Croom
Spring Hill College
2. Background
Social Identity
Social Identity refers to the qualities and values a person has and
displays to others.
Examples of Social Identity are: religion, political affiliation,
ethnicity, socioeconomic status, and living arrangement.
Musical Preference
Throughout time music has played an important role in society
and people’s identity. People listen to music in a variety of places
and situations such as in the car on the radio or on their phones
and iPods when they are working out.
The amount of background and intentional music that the
average American listens to a day is more than five hours
(Levitin 2006; McCormick, 2009 as cited in Rentfrow, Goldberg,
and Levitin, 2011).
Despite the prevalence of music research investigating the
reasons for people’s musical preference is inconclusive.
3. Current Research
North and Hargreaves (as cited in Rentfrow & Gosling,
2003) found that people use music to communicate their
values and beliefs to others. For example a religious
individual listening to religious music in their car with
their friends.
In fact people believe that music is used to express
ideas to others for instance people believed that musical
preference reveals more about their personality than
their choice of movies, clothes, and TV programs
(Rentfrow & Gosling, 2003).
4. Research Goals
To confirm the relationship between musical preference
and social identity
Determine whether people listen to music with other to
facilitate a sense of belonging
Hypothesis: Individuals will prefer to listen to music that
reinforces their social identity
5. Participants
Gender (N=91)
73 Women and 18 Men
Ethnicity
White (n=64); Black (n=18); Hispanic (n=7); Native American
(n=1); Other (n=1)
Political (M=2.71; SD=1.27)
Strongly Disagree (n=23); Disagree (n=15); Neutral (n=22);
Agree (n=25); Strongly agree (n=5)
Intelligent (M=4.26; SD=.74)
Strongly Disagree (n=1); Disagree (n=2); Neutral (n=4); Agree
(n=49); Strongly Agree (n=34)
Religious (M=3.79; SD=1.04)
Strongly Disagree (n=4); Disagree (n=6); Neutral(n=18); Agree
(n=39); Strongly agree(n=23);
6. Methods
Participants (N=91) were Spring Hill College students
recruited from psychology courses by convenience
sampling
Students were emailed a link to a 3-page, online
questionnaire
The questionnaire took 15-20 minutes to complete
Participants were awarded extra-credit for their
participation
7. Measures
Musical Preference questions
Participants completed open-ended questions related to musical
preference (e.g., What is your favorite genre of music and why?
What music do you prefer to listen to when preparing to go out
and why? What type of music do you prefer to listen to with
friends and why?).
Participants also completed 4-point, Likert-type scale examining
often listened to music in certain contexts. Response options
ranged from 1(not at all) to 4(often).
Musical categories (Rentfrow & Gosling, 2003)
(1)Reflective and complex (classical, jazz, blues, folk) *R&B,
Singer/Songwriter, indie folk
(2)Intense and Rebellious (rock, heavy metal, alternative) *indie
rock
(3)Upbeat and Conventional (religious, pop, country, soundtracks)
(4)Rhythmic and Energetic (rap, hip-hop, soul/funk,
electronica/dance) *nightcore
o *categories added for the present study
8. Measures (cont.)
Social Identity questions
Participants completed a 5-point, Likert-type scale
examining social identity (e.g., I am religious, I am
politically active, I am intelligent). Response options
ranged from 1(strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly
agree).
Participants also completed open-ended questions
that asked them to list any social identity categories
(e.g., socioeconomic class) to which they believed
they belonged. Participants were also asked to
indicate gender and ethnicity.
9. Results
A Spearman’s r correlation between musical preference
and social identity was conducted.
Results from the correlational analysis revealed there
was no statistically significant difference between
students’ musical preference and their social identity.
10. Further Analyses
Descriptive statistics were conducted examining why
students chose a specific musical preference in different
contexts.
Results revealed that, in general, most students preferred
music that changed their mood (31). This was also true for
specific contexts. Participants’ often chose to listen to
specific music with friends (36) when they went out (54),
and when they were driving with friends (34).
With regard to their favorite song, results revealed that
participants were drawn to the song because of the meaning
behind the lyrics (23)
12. Musical Preference
24
54
1 1 1
11
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
Not
aplicable
Change
mood
What
you
grew up
with
Meaning
behind
lyrics
Can
relate to
it
Other
Frequencyofresponses
Why do you listen to this
music when preparing to go
out?
29
34
27
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
Not aplicable Change mood Other
Frequencyofresponses
Why do you listen to this
music when driving with
others?
17
8
6
23
13
24
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
Frequencyofresponse
Why is this your
favorite song?
13. Discussion
While results did not confirm previous research results
(e.g., Worth & Hargreaves, 2007), there were some
findings warranting further investigation.
Students preferred music that changed their mood
Students preferred their favorite song because of the
meaning behind the lyrics
The lack of statistically significant results could be due in
part to the way social identity was measured (i.e., open-
ended question). Additionally, the participant
demographics lacked range.
14. Future Research
Future research could categorize social identity differently
For example researchers could use more close-ended
questions to examine social identity. (ex. I am athletic, I
participate in Greek life, I value family)
Research could be conducted with several different
populations or on a larger, more diverse campus.
