Musical taste is believed to function as a social ‘badge’ of identity that might develop according to a process of ‘self-to-stereotype matching’. For this reason, individuals were expected to like musical styles that are stereotypically associated with fans that were similar to them. Three studies, each using a different measure of self-to-stereotype similarity, found that similarity to stereotypical music fans correlated significantly with participants’ self-rated musical tastes. These findings suggested individuals were more likely to prefer a musical style if they were similar, or at least perceived themselves similar, to the stereotypical fans associated with that musical style. In all three studies, evidence was also found to suggest that an individual’s similarity to stereotypical music fans might be used to predict their favourite musical style.
Lonsdale, Adam J.
Faculty of Health and Life Sciences\Department of Psychology, Social Work and Public Health
Year of publication: 2016Date of RADAR deposit: 2017-05-18