What music do smart people listen to?
A recent investigation relates our musical tastes with academic qualifications.
What music do smart people listen to?
In a previous article of Psychology and Mind , we were able to know a study that linked the preference for certain musical styles with the tendency to possess a certain personality profile. In the study that concerns us today, Virgil Griffith, US creator of software and application developer, set out to investigate the link between people's musical tastes and their academic performance. The conclusions of the study were included in the dossier "Music That Makes You Dumb "(Music that makes you stupid).
The results of this detailed analysis were found after crossing the average rate in the university entrance exams of the students with the music they published and they shared in the social network Facebook . As we can see, an unscientific methodology, but it is worthwhile to echo the results found, nor to be the first stone towards new research that evaluates the relationship between these two variables: intelligence and musical preferences.
Rock for smart and reaggeton for fools?
As the results show, the young students who obtained poorer ratings were those who liked to listen to musical artists like Lil Wayne, The Used, Beyoncé or Jay- Z , being the genres of Hip Hop and Reggaeton the most commonly heard by this type of students. By cons, those who obtained a brilliant note in the entrance exam were crossed with the great composer Ludwig van Beethoven .
Within the sector with high ratings, music bands were also repeatedly reported as U2, Counting Crows, The Shins, Bob Dylan or the British Radiohea d . Following up on this outstanding list of groups, Coldplay or Red Hot Chili Peppers .
The musical tastes of average students (those who did not excel for good or bad, average students) included groups such as Pearl Jam, System of a Down , the mythical Australians AC / DC, Oasis or The Doors . The author of the study visually classified all the data in a table that was published on its website, and that we offer below.
Discussion
Certainly, the methodology of the study is questionable. First of all, the study was presented in the media as the correlation found among the variables intelligence Y musical tastes, When really the investigation did not rigorously measure any of them . Regarding the first, it should be noted that establishing a total symmetry between intelligence and academic performance is rather imprecise. Regarding the second, it is likely that what we share on Facebook is not a reliable criterion to measure our tastes and preferences.
In addition, it is necessary to explain that, obviously, there is no scientific evidence that allows us to say that there is a certain type of music that makes us "smarter" or "stupider". It is a statistical matter, mere correlation. It will be necessary to continue investigating to see to what extent there is some kind of relationship between the level of intelligence and the preference for one or other musical groups.
