A new study undertaken by Cambridge University has found that people who listen to Queen are more likely to be empathetic. The study aimed to show whether or not your taste in music can be indicative of how your brain works.
The results showed that people who listen to mellow music tend to be more empathetic, whereas those who were good at “systemising” tend to listen to more intense music. Over 4’000 people took part in the study to see whether they could be categorized as ’emphatisers’ or ‘systemisers’.
A series of different tests were conducted in a variety of forms, including both personality questions and music questions, where they had to rate 50 short pieces of music in 26 different styles.
The different styles included more “mellow” R&B, soft rock and folk, and heavier music like punk, heavy metal and more complex music such as avant-garde jazz, to determine which side of the spectrum they were on.
Artists who ranked highly with empathisers included Jeff Buckley, Queen and Norah Jones while systemisers were more likely to enjoy music from artists such as Metallica and Sex Pistols.
Doctoral student David Greenberg, who led the team, said: “Although people’s music choices fluctuate over time, we’ve discovered a person’s empathy levels and thinking style predicts what kind of music they like.
Photo Credit: Elias Ruiz Monserrat
