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A total of 321 working adults indicated their music preferences after completing a Big Five personality test and a dimensional Dark-Side measure. Through correlations and regressions, we were able to show demographic (sex, age, education), ideological (political and religious beliefs), and bright- and dark-side personality correlates of eight music styles. Open-Mindedness and several dark-side personality traits were associated with music preferences. Binary regressions revealed that Country, Folk, and Classical music showed the most associations with individual difference variables, while Hip-Hop/Rap and the “Other” category showed the fewest. Implications and limitations are noted.
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Haakonsen et al. (2026) studied this question.
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