Psychopaths have a distinct preference for rap music

Maciamo

Veteran member
Admin
Messages
9,948
Reaction score
3,228
Points
113
Location
Lothier
Ethnic group
Italo-celto-germanic
Interesting study. It might be possible to identify psychopaths based on their musical preferences.

The Guardian: Playlist of the Lambs: psychopaths may have distinct musical preferences

"Contrary to the movie trope epitomised by Alex in A Clockwork Orange and Hannibal Lecter in the Silence of the Lambs, psychopaths are no fonder of classical music than anyone else, though they do appear to have other musical preferences, psychologists say.

In a study of 200 people who listened to 260 songs, those with the highest psychopath scores were among the greatest fans of the Blackstreet number one hit No Diggity, with Eminem’s Lose Yourself rated highly too.

The New York University team behind the work stress that the results are preliminary and unpublished, but the scientists are sufficiently intrigued to launch a major study in which thousands of people across the psychopathy spectrum will be quizzed on their musical tastes.

Tests on a second group of volunteers suggest the songs could help to predict the disorder. Whatever their other personality traits might be, fans of The Knack’s My Sharona and Sia’s Titanium were among the least psychopathic, the study found.

[...]

About 1% of the general population meets the description of a psychopath, but the figure is far higher in prisons, where about one in five has the disorder. One estimate, from Kent Kiehl, a psychologist at the University of New Mexico, suggests that psychopaths cost the US government alone $460bn (£340bn) a year.

The larger study will now investigate whether the link between musical tastes and psychopathy is real, and if it is, whether groups of songs can predict potential psychopaths. That could lead to some controversial applications, Wallisch said. If the team can identify a group of 30 songs, for example, that together prove good at predicting psychopaths, then playlists from online music providers could be used to identify them.

The beauty of this idea is you can use it as a screening test without consent, cooperation or maybe even the knowledge of the people involved,” Wallisch said. “The ethics of this are very hairy, but so is having a psychopath as a boss, and so is having a psychopath in any position of power.” Fortunately for ethicists, the possibility is some way off yet. “This work is very preliminary,” Wallisch added. “This is not the end of an investigation, it is the very beginning.”

Kevin Dutton, a psychologist at Oxford, and the author of The Wisdom of Psychopaths, has been gathering data on musical tastes and other preferences for a psychopath study with Channel 4. More than three million people have responded so far, and while online surveys have serious weaknesses, the results so far suggest psychopaths favour rap music over classical and jazz. They also seem more likely to read the Financial Times than other newspapers."




I have always hated rap with a passion. I can't say that for any other musical genre. I have really listened to everything from classical to techno and from traditional folk music to hard rock. I rarely listen to music of any kind nowadays though (I just replay in my head my favourite tunes as I have a good auditive memory).
 
Perhaps, rap is more prevalent in US jails, because inmates are mostly black, but in Europe heavy metal might be their choice. No?
 
Perhaps, rap is more prevalent in US jails, because inmates are mostly black, but in Europe heavy metal might be their choice. No?

This article suggests that fans of Classical music, and Heavy metal have similar dispositions. I've been to a lot of metal concerts, and people into metal are usually fans of classical music as well. Also, many of them seem to be interested in subjects like history, or STEM related fields I've noticed. They're not psychotic, but rather are into over the top and dramatic themes. Many love complexity of the music, and are very "left-brain" oriented.

Metal fans, like classical listeners, tend to be creative, gentle people, at ease with themselves. "We think the answer is that both types of music, classical and heavy metal, have something of the spiritual about them — they're very dramatic — a lot happens," North said to the BBC.

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2008/sep/08/classical.metal.fans.study


Edit: I think metal-lyric writers have more of a fascination with psychopaths, than psychopaths have with metal.
 
This article suggests that fans of Classical music, and Heavy metal have similar dispositions. I've been to a lot of metal concerts, and people into metal are usually fans of classical music as well. Also, many of them seem to be interested in subjects like history, I've noticed. They're not psychotic, but are into over the top and dramatic themes.
Did they narrow it down to what classical music? There are so many styles.
I had some employees who liked heavy metal and hard rock. I think they were rather emotional people, with propensity to addictions, and often "explosive" in action. But not really psychopathic like people. Well, everything very generally speaking. Just some observation.
 
Did they narrow it down to what classical music? There are so many styles.
I had some employees who liked heavy metal and hard rock. I think they were rather emotional people, with propensity to addictions, and often "explosive" in action. But not really psychopathic like people. Well, everything very generally speaking. Just some observation.

Here's the original study, but unfortunately all I can see is a preview:

https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5406/amerjpsyc.123.2.0199?seq=1#

Abstract Several studies have investigated the relationship between (usually a narrow set of) personality dimensions and liking for a small number of individual musical styles. To date there has been no attempt to investigate, within a single methodology, the extent to which personality factors correlate with liking for a very wide range of musical styles. To address this, 36,518 participants rated their liking for 104 musical styles, completed a short form of the Big 5 personality inventory, and provided other data about their favorite musical styles. Personality factors were related to both liking for the musical styles and participants’ reasons for listening to this music. However, on the whole these latter variables were related more closely to participants’ age, sex, and income than to Big 5 scores. Thus, personality is related to musical taste, but other individual differences are arguably related more closely.

It seems that substance abuse is a prevalent issue in many youth cultures, and metal is no exception. But from what I noticed, it is mainly alcohol when it comes to metal. I think narcissism is also an attribute I've noticed in metal as well.
 
Perhaps, rap is more prevalent in US jails, because inmates are mostly black, but in Europe heavy metal might be their choice. No?

This is why I am getting very jaundiced about social psych type studies. There are too many variables that they don't consider.

It's a delusion to think that prisons are full of genius criminal minds. In local and state prisons, in particular, the profile is lower class, uneducated, disproportionately black from inner city slums. When would they have been exposed to classical music or traditional folk music?

They listen to rap. That's what they know. Correlation is not causation. They have to control for all sorts of variables, and test all over the world before they come to any conclusions, and even then they should be cautious.

I'm sure that in the 1920s a lot of them listened to blues or jazz. Now, it's effete white people like me, I bet, who listen to it regularly.

The problem with rap for me is that it's all about male anger, at least since the very early days. That's a function not of the "form", which actually is barely musical, but of the content.

All of that said, I think a lot of Eminem's lyrics are quite profound and moving, even if expressed in a way that doesn't appeal to me.
 
This is why I am getting very jaundiced about social psych type studies. There are too many variables that they don't consider.

It's a delusion to think that prisons are full of genius criminal minds. In local and state prisons, in particular, the profile is lower class, uneducated, disproportionately black from inner city slums. When would they have been exposed to classical music or traditional folk music?

They listen to rap. That's what they know. Correlation is not causation. They have to control for all sorts of variables, and test all over the world before they come to any conclusions, and even then they should be cautious.

I'm sure that in the 1920s a lot of them listened to blues or jazz. Now, it's effete white people like me, I bet, who listen to it regularly.

The problem with rap for me is that it's all about male anger, at least since the very early days. That's a function not of the "form", which actually is barely musical, but of the content.

All of that said, I think a lot of Eminem's lyrics are quite profound and moving, even if expressed in a way that doesn't appeal to me.

Effete!!
I swear, almost every time you post something new here, I find myself googling a new word I've never heard before! Thanks for expanding my vocab!
 
I should have added that I wouldn't describe myself that way. :)

I'm sure that's how neo-Nazis would see me and people like me, however, at least the intellectual ones, if that isn't an oxymoron.

I should also add that on average people who really like current rap music might be more violent etc., but it's not a function of the music form per se, in my opinion, but of where it arose, who performs it, and their "emotional" state.

Ed. Oxymoron-contradictory terms, i.e. neo-Nazi and intellectual. :)
 
Effete!!
I swear, almost every time you post something new here, I find myself googling a new word I've never heard before! Thanks for expanding my vocab!
I bet it was "jazz". ;)

@Angela
I do like couple of M&M songs.
 
I should have added that I wouldn't describe myself that way. :)

I'm sure that's how neo-Nazis would see me and people like me, however, at least the intellectual ones, if that isn't an oxymoron.

I should also add that on average people who really like current rap music might be more violent etc., but it's not a function of the music form per se, in my opinion, but of where it arose, who performs it, and their "emotional" state.

Ed. Oxymoron-contradictory terms, i.e. neo-Nazi and intellectual. :)
I wish they pin it down to melody versus beat-rhythm versus lyrics.
 
This is why I am getting very jaundiced about social psych type studies. There are too many variables that they don't consider.

It's a delusion to think that prisons are full of genius criminal minds. In local and state prisons, in particular, the profile is lower class, uneducated, disproportionately black from inner city slums. When would they have been exposed to classical music or traditional folk music?

They listen to rap. That's what they know. Correlation is not causation. They have to control for all sorts of variables, and test all over the world before they come to any conclusions, and even then they should be cautious.

I'm sure that in the 1920s a lot of them listened to blues or jazz. Now, it's effete white people like me, I bet, who listen to it regularly.

The problem with rap for me is that it's all about male anger, at least since the very early days. That's a function not of the "form", which actually is barely musical, but of the content.

All of that said, I think a lot of Eminem's lyrics are quite profound and moving, even if expressed in a way that doesn't appeal to me.

I share your sentiments about the study, and the high probability that much of it may be skewed by disadvantaged African-Americans, in prison who happen to grow up listening to hip hop.

But an interesting thing to note, is that the largest portion of hip hop consumers are actually white. Perhaps they also contribute to the population of psychopaths that are attracted to hip hop as well.

Data from different years all put white in the majority of consumers. But not much of a surprises since white is the majority population in the country. Nevertheless, this is of consumers, but the number of actual listeners, via YouTube, or other means may be different. I would imagine people who are poorer would just burn a CD or make a mix tape back then.

http://www.rbr.com/hip-hop-consumers-and-retail/
IH7Cwr9.png


In 2004 Mediamark Research Inc. estimated that closer to 60 percent of rap music consumers were white. While that’s still substantial, it’s much lower than the rumored 80 percent that has been floating around for over twenty years.

Of the approximately 64 million Americans between age 15 and 30, about 73 percent of them are white. So if 60 percent of rap consumers were white in 2004, they represented a significantly lower number than their share of the population—meaning the Blacks and Hispanics in remaining 40 percent were significantly higher than their share of the overall U.S. population.

In others words, whites were underrepresented among rap consumers and Blacks and Hispanics were over-represented.
http://atlantablackstar.com/2014/11/06/really-listening/
 
I should have added that I wouldn't describe myself that way. :)
I'm sure that's how neo-Nazis would see me and people like me, however, at least the intellectual ones, if that isn't an oxymoron.
I should also add that on average people who really like current rap music might be more violent etc., but it's not a function of the music form per se, in my opinion, but of where it arose, who performs it, and their "emotional" state.
Ed. Oxymoron-contradictory terms, i.e. neo-Nazi and intellectual. :)
Would you like me to sell some of my albums to you? I'll offer a discount and I'm sure you'll like them. They're a mixture of ballads from the romantic canals of Venice and the authentic Tuscan country side (wink wink). Wink!!!!!!!! 😈
 
I wish they pin it down to melody versus beat-rhythm versus lyrics.

I personally wouldn't be able to choose, though. I like instrumental "classical" music, and I like melodic songs even if the lyrics aren't very profound. On the other hand, I love certain songs with profound lyrics sung by not particularly vocally gifted singer/songwriters. I really like "fun" songs too, like "Uptown Funk" that I posted on the music thread. Then there's all the dance tunes I love that are really all about the beat, like tango and milonga, in my opinion, or Irish step dance, or folk music, from all sorts of places, not just Italy. Each genre has its own strengths.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5E4mBoGX6Dw

I even like some country music, even if it's a bit corny.

I suppose it might work if people only like one type of music.
 
We have hosted 2 girls from Germany and 1 girl and 3 boys from Czech Republic over the years. They all liked hip-hop. My boys were both into rap in HS.
 
I bet it was "jazz". ;)

@Angela
I do like couple of M&M songs.
hey LeBrok, in your case, you googled "heavy metal" after reading Jovialis's post! ;)
I never googled heavy metal a day in my life! I listened to it in diapers while rapidly shaking my rattle lol!!
 
This is why I am getting very jaundiced about social psych type studies. There are too many variables that they don't consider.

It's a delusion to think that prisons are full of genius criminal minds. In local and state prisons, in particular, the profile is lower class, uneducated, disproportionately black from inner city slums. When would they have been exposed to classical music or traditional folk music?

There are two studies mentioned in the article. The first one is American, from New York University. But the second is British:

"Kevin Dutton, a psychologist at Oxford, and the author of The Wisdom of Psychopaths, has been gathering data on musical tastes and other preferences for a psychopath study with Channel 4. More than three million people have responded so far, and while online surveys have serious weaknesses, the results so far suggest psychopaths favour rap music over classical and jazz.". Note that Channel 4 is one of the main British TV channels.

Both studies analysed the musical tastes of psychopaths, not of prison inmates. The Guardian also interviewed a psychologist from the University of New Mexico who mentioned that 20% of prison inmates are psychopaths, but this was just for the journalist to explain how useful it could be to be able to spot psychopaths just based on their musical tastes, as part of a crime prevention system.
 
Btw, I took the Channel 4 psychopath test and scored 30%. My favourite music is classical.

You are warm and empathic with a heightened awareness of social responsibility and a strong sense of conscience. You like to carefully weigh up the pros and cons of a situation before you act and are generally averse to taking risks. You are very much a ‘people person’ and dislike conflict. ‘Do unto others…’ are your watchwords. But, although you avoid hurting others, those residing at the higher end of the psychopathic spectrum might not be as considerate, so stay vigilant to avoid being hurt unnecessarily.

Reasonable description although I wouldn't call myself a ‘people person’.
 
Btw, I took the Channel 4 psychopath test and scored 30%. My favourite music is classical.



Reasonable description although I wouldn't call myself a ‘people person’.


42% for me.

Though your conscience is in the right place you also have a pragmatic streak and generally aren’t afraid to do your own dirty work! You’re no shrinking violet - but no daredevil either. You generally have little trouble seeing things from another person’s perspective but, at the same time, are no pushover. ‘Everything in moderation – including moderation’ might sum up your approach to life.

I thought the below graphic was interesting:

Favortie music: Heavy metal (I like all music, but it's what I grew up listening to. Thus the reason for my choice.) Favorite animal: Fish (Again, what I grew up having, because my family didn't want to have other kinds of pets). Still 10% less psycho than the average male, and just 1% more than the average female.

zwXDMCI.png
 
Last edited:
Interesting. I think my brother would have scored closer to 80% . I scored a 39%.
 

This thread has been viewed 29932 times.

Back
Top