Emotion regulation is one of the main reasons that people listen to music, and personality traits have been shown to exert significant influence in shaping musical preferences. Type D personality is a psychological risk factor for adverse health outcomes. However, no music studies have yet examined the effect of Type D personality on musical preferences, which may provide some preliminary insight into clinical applications. Therefore, this study investigated the relationship between Type D personality and musical preferences. An online survey investigating musical
preferences (Revised version of the Short Test of Musical Preferences [STOMP-R])and the Type D personality was administered. In total, 196 participants completed the survey, of which half were from the Eastern culture and half from the Western culture. 40% of the participants were categorised as Type D personality, and no significant association of gender or nationality with Type D classification was observed. However, the links between Type D personality and the Punk genre (p=.047), and between non-Type D personality and the Jazz genre (p=.008) were indicated. Moreover, differences were observed in the factor structure of STOMP-R.The exploratory results facilitate the understanding of links between personality traits and music listening and provide new insight into musical preference dimensions.
KeywordsType D personality, musical preferences, mental health, musical dimensions, crosscultural Musical Preferences and Type D Personality 2 Regulation of emotions is one of the main reasons that people listen to music (Saarikallio, 2011;Sloboda, 2011;Thoma, Ryf, Mohiyeddini, Ehlert, & Nater, 2012), and mood improvement has been indicated as the most common benefit that people perceive while listening to their favourite music (Schafer & Sedlmeier, 2009).Moreover, factors affecting people's preferences in choosing music have been investigated (Dunn, de Ruyter, & Bouwhuis, 2011;Liljestrom, Juslin, & Vastfjall, 2012;Schäfer & Sedlmeier, 2010;Schafer & Sedlmeier, 2009;Schafer, Tipandjan, & Sedlmeier, 2012). In particular, the role of personality traits in shaping musical preferences has received the most attention in the music psychology literature (Bonneville-Roussy, Rentfrow, Xu, & Potter, 2013;Delsing, Bogt, Engels, & Meeus, 2008;Getz, Marks, & Roy, 2012;Rentfrow & Gosling, 2003). However, studies conducted in the field of music psychology have primarily focused on the five-factor model (FFM) or Big Five personality traits (Bonneville-Roussy et al., 2013;Rentfrow & Gosling, 2003) and additional studies on other personality traits affecting musical preferences are required.Compared with the FFM, Type D personality might be a novel personality trait studied in the field of music psychology and initially applied in clinical settings (Denollet, Sys, & Brutsaert, 1995). According to Denollet, Type D personality has a propensity towards distress and is defined as a combination of negative affectivity (NA) and social inhibition (SI); individuals with a te...
