14 September 2006
Newsdesk
Fans of hip-hop music are likely to have had more sexual partners in the last five years while many of those who prefer classical strains will have tried cannabis, according to a study released on Thursday.
Psychologist Adrian North from the University of Leicester surveyed 2,500 Britons to find out how their musical tastes related to their lifestyles and interests.
He said the results showed said it was possible to discover clues about what people were like simply from the music they liked.
Almost 38 percent of hip hop devotees and 29 percent of dance music fans were more likely to have had more than one sexual partner in the last five years compared to just 1.5 percent of country music fans.
However they were also more likely to have broken the law, with more than 50 percent of both hip hop and dance music lovers admitting committing a criminal act.
A quarter of classical music fans have tried cannabis while 12 percent of those who liked opera had experimented with magic mushrooms.
"Surprisingly there have been very few studies on how people's age, sex, socio-economic status and personality relate to the music they enjoy listening to," North said.
He now wants to recruit 10,000 people for a wider study on his Web site www.musicaltastetest.com.
