A Preliminary Study of Music Experience, Creativity and Personality William G. Collier University of North Carolina at Pembroke William.collier@uncp.edu

Music & Personality & Creativity Rentfrow and Gosling (2003) found that people place a high value on music in a variety of ways. They believe that: Music is important That music preferences says something about themselves That music preferences reveal information about themselves and others This study examined correlations between music, personality and creativity.

Ethnicity and Music Preferences Rentfrow and Gosling (2003) were unable to examine any potential ethnic differences in music preferences. Collier (2009) found that African Americans, Caucasians and Native Americans all indicated that their most preferred musical genre was rap/hip-hop. The second most preferred musical genre for African Americans was Rhythm & Blues, whereas the second most preferred musical genre for both Caucasians and Native Americans was Country. This study examined these musical preferences again.

Personality and Creativity McKay, Karwowski and Kaufman (2016) reported numerous correlations between the Big Five (as measured by the IPIP; Goldberg et al., 2006) and the five domains of creativity (as measured by the K-DOC; Kaufman, 2012). This study also examined correlations between the Big Five (as measured by the TIPI; Gosling, Rentfrow & Swann, 2003) and the five domains of creativity (as measured by the K-DOC).

Methods Participants 143 undergraduate students Ages 18-46 (M = 19.88, SD = 4.627) 94 female (65.7%) & 49 male (34.3%) 64 African American (45%), 56 Caucasian (39%) & 23 Native American (16%)

Recruitment Participants were enrolled in Introduction to Psychology courses. Participants were recruited on SONA – an online participant management software program that is used by the department of psychology. Participants completed the surveys online through the SONA system.

Materials Kaufman Domains of Creativity Scale (K-DOCS; Kaufman, 2012) Ten-Item Personality Inventory (Gosling, Rentfrow & Swann, 2003) A Variety of Music and Study Questions, as well as Demographic Questions

Results Music Experience Correlations with Personality and creativity African Americans Average Years of Music Experience was significantly correlated with: Self-Everyday Creativity (r = .26 , p < .05) Scholarly Creativity (r = .32 , p < .01) Performance Creativity (r = .33 , p < .01) Scientific Creativity (r = .29 , p < .05) Caucasians Extraversion (r = .32 , p < .05) Self-everyday Creativity (r = .27 , p < .05) Performance Creativity (r = .41 , p < .01) Native Americans No significant correlation between average years of music experience, personality and creativity. 1 = Totally Disagree, 2 = Disagree, 3 = Unsure, 4 = Agree, 5 = Totally Agree

Music Preferences Collier (2009) found African Americans, Caucasians and Native Americans most preferred the musical genre of rap/hip-hop. The current study found that the most preferred musical genre of African Americans was still rap/hip-hop, whereas the most preferred musical genre of Caucasians was Country. The two most preferred musical genres (tied in their preference) for Native Americans were rap/hip-hop & country. The second most preferred musical genre of Caucasians was Rap/Hip-Hop, whereas the second most preferred musical genre of African Americans was Rhythm & Blues. Thus, the musical preferences in this study are similar to the music preferences in Collier (2009). 1 = Much less creative, 2 = less creative, 3 = neither more nor less creative, 4 = more creative, 5 = much more creative

Correlations between Personality & Creativity McKay, Karwowski & Kaufman (2016) reported numerous significant correlations between the Big Five and the five domains of creativity, including (all positive correlations except one): Extraversion significantly correlating with all of the five domains of creativity Agreeableness significantly correlating with Everyday Creativity & also with Scholarly Creativity Conscientiousness significantly correlating with Everyday Creativity & Scholarly Creativity Emotional Stability significantly correlated with Everyday Creativity & significantly negatively correlated with Artistic Creativity Openness significantly correlated with all of the five domains of creativity. In examining ethnic differences in this study, no significant correlations between Agreeableness or Emotional Stability were found

Correlations between Personality & Creativity Native Americans Extraversion & Performance Creativity (r = .42, p < .05) Caucasians Extraversion & Performance Creativity (r = .32, p < .05) Conscientiousness & Everyday Creativity (r = .33, p < .05) Openness & Everyday Creativity (r = .47, p < .01) African Americans Openness & Everyday Creativity (r = .35, p < .01) Openness & Performance Creativity (r = .29, p < .05) Openness & Artistic Creativity (r = .36, p < .01)

Discussion People believe that music says something about personality. In could be, however, that what music says about one’s personality or creativity depends on one’s ethnicity. At least that is what was found in this study. Rap/Hip-Hop continues to be the most preferred musical genre not only for African Americans, but also for Native Americans. In addition, Rap/Hip-Hop is the second most preferred musical genre for Caucasians.

Discussion The many correlations between the Big Five and the five domains of creativity reported by McKay, Karwowski & Kaufman (2016) were not replicated in this study. No correlations at all were found for Native Americans Only three correlations were found for Caucasians Only three correlations were found for African Americans

Weaknesses Small Sample Size Online Survey? TIPI?

Next Step Future research should replicate and expand on these findings New research should endeavor to include more ethnically diverse samples. Obtain larger sample size Additional aspects of music should be examined

References Collier, W. G. (2009). Music and Personality: A Preliminary Study. Poster presented at the Annual Meeting of the Southwestern Psychological Association: San Antonio, TX. Goldberg, L. R., Johnson, J. A., Eber, H. W., Hogan, R., Ashton, M. C., Cloninger, C. R., & Gough, H. G. (2006). The international personality item pool and the future of public-domain personality measures. Journal of Research in Personality, 40, 84-96. Gosling, S. D., Rentfrow, P. J., & Swann, W. B. (2003). A very brief measure of the Big-Five personality domains. Journal of Research in Personality, 37, 504-528. Kaufman, J. C. (2012). Counting the muses: Development of the Kaufman domains of creativity scale (K-DOCS). Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts, 6, 298-308. McKay, A. S., Karwowski, M., & Kaufman, J. C. (2016). Measuring the muses: Validating the Kaufman domains of creativity scale (K-DOCS). Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts, Online First Publication, 1-15. Rentfrow, P. J., & Gosling, S. D. (2003). The do re mi’s of everyday life: The structure and personality correlates of music preferences. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 84, 1236-1256.