Your favourite song could reveal if you are a psychopath
A new study by New York University has found that there is a correlation between music preference and psychopathic traits.
The study compared volunteers’ tastes in music with their scores on a personality test to see if there were any trends.
The researchers at the university played 260 songs for 200 people and discovered that respondents with the highest psychopathic scores were fans of Blackstreet’s “No Diggity” and Eminem’s “Lose Yourself”.
Those who had the lowest psychopathic scores were fans of The Knack’s “My Sharona” and Sia’s “Titanium”.
The study is aiming to find a way to easily identify psychopaths without them knowing. Researchers say this identification could help make sure they don’t get into a position where they can physically or emotionally abuse others.
“The media portrays psychopaths as axe murderers and serial killers, but the reality is they are not obvious; they are not like The Joker in Batman,” head researcher Pascal Wallisch told The Guardian.
“They might be working right next to you and they blend in. They are like psychological dark matter.”
Approximately one per cent of the population fits the description of a psychopath and on average one in five prisoners are identified as having the psychological disorder.
The volunteers used in the study were all young and educated but came from different ethnic and economic groups.
The volunteers completed the Levenson Self-Report Psychopathy Scale, a widely accepted personality test designed in 1995 to identify psychopathy.
Wallisch highlighted that the study is preliminary and unpublished but hopes the initial findings will be a launchpad for a larger study.