But the study did uncover some modest links between certain entertainment media preferences and problematic tendencies such as negative emotionality and psychoticism.
The researchers caution, however, that maladaptive traits and entertainment interests are not linked strongly enough to diagnose people based simply on the music and movies they like.
These findings parallel results from the literature on normal personality traits pertaining to introversion-extraversion and openness to experience.”.
Conservative music such as country and gospel, along with faith-based movie genres, “were linked to traits that capture neurotic, hostile, and eccentric tendencies,” Blagov said.
“Interestingly, we found no support for the notion that people who enjoy intense/rebellious music (heavy metal, punk, alternative rock, hip-hop, rap, and rave) show maladaptive personality tendencies.
This had been suggested in some older literature on the so-called (and I would like to emphasize the so-called) ‘problem’ music.
“Additional research is needed to explain the ‘why’ of the links between personality and entertainment interests,” Blagov added. »