You Are What You Listen To A Study of Social Judgment Strength Based on Musical Identities and Preferences

Date of Award

2009

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelors

Department

Social Sciences

First Advisor

Callahan, Charlene

Keywords

Music, Judgments, Identity

Area of Concentration

Psychology

Abstract

The current study examined self-identity from within the context of musical preferences. It investigated whether the strength with which music preferences impact overall identity predicted the strength of judgments made of other music fans. One-hundred-sixty-nine participants, 65 males and 104 females, completed online surveys and listened to clips of "favorite songs" of five hypothetical music "fans." Social assessments of each "fan" were elicited. Each participant also completed a self-questionnaire and responded to similar social assessment questions, as well as items designed to assess musical identity and musician status. Results showed that musical identity strength was positively correlated with making "extreme" judgments of the hypothetical music fans. Being a musician or singer affected musical identity strength. The question of whether participants showed evidence of self-to-prototype matching was explored, as was the incidence of in-group/out-group bias. Neither showed strong effects. Implications for future research are discussed.

Rights

This bibliographic record is available under the Creative Commons CC0 public domain dedication. The New College of Florida, as creator of this bibliographic record, has waived all rights to it worldwide under copyright law, including all related and neighboring rights, to the extent allowed by law.

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