Medical Mysteries of Music

We won’t be seeing many more Facebook music profiles like this one, will we?

Now that the world knows that Facebook blew it with the whole Cambridge Analytica scandal, the era of harvesting of user data by third parties is over.

Among the shrapnel of this scandal is news of one of the many personality profile quizzes undertaken for academic research. Back in 2015, the Psychometrics Centre of Stanford and Cambridge Universities launched a 100-question app called myPersonality. The goal was to use Facebook data to determine how open, conscientious, extroverted, agreeable, and neurotic people were.

When music is used as a filter, this is what researchers discovered,

Most open: Fans of Bjork and Tom Wait

Least open: Cheryl fans,

Most extroverted: Those into Gucci Mane and Wake Flocka Flame.

Most introverted: Anyone who tended to like Nightwish.

Least agreeable: Fans of Marilyn Manson, Rammstein, Judas Priest and Placebo.

Most neurotic: Those who show preferences for The Smiths, Bring Me the Horizon as well as Manson and Placebo.

Read more at The NME.

Alan Cross

is an internationally known broadcaster, interviewer, writer, consultant, blogger and speaker. In his 40+ years in the music business, Alan has interviewed the biggest names in rock, from David Bowie and U2 to Pearl Jam and the Foo Fighters. He’s also known as a musicologist and documentarian through programs like The Ongoing History of New Music.

Alan Cross has 39348 posts and counting. See all posts by Alan Cross

One thought on “We won’t be seeing many more Facebook music profiles like this one, will we?

  • As a fan of Placebo….I disagree lol

    Reply

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