Real emotional moments in life – such as forgiveness, anger, courtship, planning and parenting – don't take place at precise clips like a robot, writes Levitin, who is a musician himself. Music reflects that and derives its power from certain changes: in tempo, rhythm, interpretation. What Your Musical Taste Says About You For several years, Levitin and his colleagues have explored how our personalities and other cognitive characteristics affect our musical tastes. In one study, they looked at the musical tastes of five personality types, dubbed OCEAN: openness to experience, conscientiousness, extrovertism, agreeableness and neuroticism. They found that people with personalities high on "openness to experience" preferred music from a wide array of genres. Those who were agreeable preferred more mellow music, and those who were neurotic preferred negative music, says David Greenberg, a music psychologist at the City University of New York and University of Cambridge in the U.K. "These traits are more ingrained and biological," he says. "Through the musical process, you are reinforcing different parts of yourself." That may be why people seek romantic partners with similar musical tastes, he adds. "It's not small talk: You're communicating really important information about yourself – what your core beliefs are.
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