你的音乐偏好是如何体现个性特质的？

 Heavy metal fans are often considered antisocial and aggressive, while those who prefer slow love songs might be thought of as soppy, and classical music fans are seen as pretentious¹.

重金属音乐迷往往具有反社会人格和侵略性，喜欢慢情歌的人往往是多愁善感的，古典音乐迷往往自命不凡。

While many would probably deny these stereotypes² hold any weight, the links between music and personality are being seriously investigated by teams of psychologists.

很多人可能对这种说法不以为然，但是一群心理学家却对音乐和个人性格之间的联系进行了严肃认真的调查研究。

One such expert from Cambridge has now created a quiz to put these theories to the test - and you can take it to find out what your music personality is.

一位来自剑桥的心理学家运用这些理论做了一项测试，通过这项测试你可以找出自己的音乐个性是什么。

To take the quiz, go to musicaluniverse.org and select the Musical Test.

你可以登录musicaluniverse.org网，选择音乐测试即可参加测试。

你的音乐偏好是如何体现个性特质的？

David Greenberg, a psychologist at the University of Cambridge, is one of the researchers working on the 'Musical Universe' project.

剑桥大学的心理学家大卫·格林伯格是“音乐世界”项目的研究人员之一。

Mr Greenberg has quizzed thousands of people, first giving them a written test to analyse their personalities³ and then finding out what types of music they prefer.

格林伯格先生调查研究了数千人，首先给他们一个书面测试来分析他们的性格，然后找出他们喜欢什么类型的音乐。

Mr Greenberg said: 'We've found that musical preferences are linked to three brain types.'

格林伯格说：“我们已经发现，音乐偏好与三种大脑类型有关。”

He said those who have a well-developed ability to understand thoughts and feelings in themselves and others, so-called 'empathisers', prefer mellow⁴ music that evokes⁵ deep emotion.

他说，能够充分理解他人和自己想法和感受的人，常被称为“感同身受者”，这一类人往往更喜欢柔和与能够唤起内心深层情感的音乐。

People who can identify patterns and systems, known as 'systemisers', prefer intense music that forms complex sounds.

能够识别音乐形态和音乐系统的人，被称为“系统识别者”，这一类人喜欢节奏强烈、旋律复杂的音乐。

The theory, he explained, is that empathisers are interested in music's emotional qualities and how it makes them feel, whereas systemisers are more intrigued⁶ by its structural⁷ qualities.

根据格林伯格的理论，感同身受者常常对音乐中传达的情感特质以及自身产生共鸣的过程感兴趣，而系统识别者则更容易被音乐的结构特质所吸引。

Meanwhile, people who like both mellow music and intense music tend to have similar scores in empathising and systemising tests, indicating a 'balanced' thinking style.

与此同时，既喜欢柔和音乐又喜欢激烈音乐的人，在感同身受和系统识别测试中得分趋同，达到一种“平衡”的思维模式。

This is not the first time psychologists have looked into the way music taste and personality mix.

这并非心理学家第一次在实验中把音乐品味和人格特质组合在一起。

The Short Test Of Musical Preferences (Stomp) is a test that assesses preferences in music genres⁸, and was first introduced in 2003 by scientists in Austin, Texas.

德克萨斯州奥斯汀的科学家团队在2003年就首次引入了音乐偏好快速测试，也是一个根据音乐风格喜好来测试性格特质的科学项目。

The researchers performed analysis similar to Mr Greenberg's and found that people who prefer reflective and complex music like blues⁹, classical and jazz score highly on openness to experience, and see themselves as politically liberal, intelligent and not very athletic¹⁰.

研究者开展了与格林伯格类似的分析，结果显示，喜欢布鲁斯、古典音乐和爵士乐等深沉复杂音乐的人在经验开放性测试中得分较高，他们认为自己崇尚政治自由、聪明，但不擅长运动。

They found that fans of upbeat music like country, pop and soundtracks, on the other hand, tended to have low scores for openness to experience and intelligence.

研究者还发现，喜欢乡村音乐、流行音乐和电影配乐之类欢快音乐的人，在经验开放性与智力测试中得分较低。

They were more likely to be agreeable, extroverted¹¹ and conscientious¹² and see themselves as attractive, wealthy, athletic and politically conservative.

这样的人更和蔼、外向、正直，认为自己有魅力、富有、擅长运动，政治上较为保守。

Finally, people who prefer energetic and rhythmic¹³ music were also extroverted, agreeable, attractive and athletic, but they did not share the political inclination¹⁴, wealth or lower intelligence scores as lovers of upbeat music.

最后，喜欢动感和节奏强烈音乐的人也很外向随和，富有魅力而且擅长运动。但是他们的政治倾向和财富多少与偏好欢快音乐的人不一样，智力测试的得分也未必偏低。

Vocabulary

soppy: 多愁善感的

reflective: 沉思的

1 pretentious   

adj.自命不凡的，自负的，炫耀的

参考例句：

• He is a talented but pretentious writer.他是一个有才华但自命不凡的作家。
• Speaking well of yourself would only make you appear conceited and pretentious.自夸只会使你显得自负和虚伪。

2 stereotypes   

n.老套，模式化的见解，有老一套固定想法的人( stereotype的名词复数 )v.把…模式化，使成陈规( stereotype的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• Such jokes tend to reinforce racial stereotypes. 这样的笑话容易渲染种族偏见。
• It makes me sick to read over such stereotypes devoid of content. 这种空洞无物的八股调，我看了就讨厌。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

3 personalities   

n. 诽谤，（对某人容貌、性格等所进行的）人身攻击； 人身攻击；人格, 个性, 名人( personality的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• There seemed to be a degree of personalities in her remarks.她话里有些人身攻击的成分。
• Personalities are not in good taste in general conversation.在一般的谈话中诽谤他人是不高尚的。

4 mellow   

adj.柔和的；熟透的；v.变柔和；(使)成熟

参考例句：

• These apples are mellow at this time of year.每年这时节，苹果就熟透了。
• The colours become mellow as the sun went down.当太阳落山时，色彩变得柔和了。

5 evokes   

产生，引起，唤起( evoke的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• The film evokes chilling reminders of the war. 这部电影使人们回忆起战争的可怕场景。
• Each type evokes antibodies which protect against the homologous. 每一种类型都能产生抗同种病毒的抗体。

6 intrigued   

adj.好奇的，被迷住了的v.搞阴谋诡计(intrigue的过去式)；激起…的兴趣或好奇心；“intrigue”的过去式和过去分词

参考例句：

• You've really intrigued me—tell me more! 你说的真有意思—再给我讲一些吧！
• He was intrigued by her story. 他被她的故事迷住了。

7 structural   

adj.构造的，组织的，建筑（用）的

参考例句：

• The storm caused no structural damage.风暴没有造成建筑结构方面的破坏。
• The North American continent is made up of three great structural entities.北美大陆是由三个构造单元组成的。

8 genres   

（文学、艺术等的）类型，体裁，风格( genre的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Novel and short story are different genres. 长篇小说和短篇小说是不同的类别。
• But confusions over the two genres have a long history. 但是类型的混淆，古已有之。 来自汉英文学 - 散文英译

9 blues   

n.抑郁，沮丧；布鲁斯音乐

参考例句：

• She was in the back of a smoky bar singing the blues.她在烟雾弥漫的酒吧深处唱着布鲁斯歌曲。
• He was in the blues on account of his failure in business.他因事业失败而意志消沉。

10 athletic   

adj.擅长运动的，强健的；活跃的，体格健壮的

参考例句：

• This area has been marked off for athletic practice.这块地方被划出来供体育训练之用。
• He is an athletic star.他是一个运动明星。

11 extroverted   

a.性格外向的

参考例句：

• Do you think you are introverted or extroverted? 你认为你性格内向还是外向？
• Are you introverted or extroverted? 你个性内向还是外向？ 来自轻松英语会话---联想2000词(上)

12 conscientious   

adj.审慎正直的，认真的，本着良心的

参考例句：

• He is a conscientious man and knows his job.他很认真负责，也很懂行。
• He is very conscientious in the performance of his duties.他非常认真地履行职责。

13 rhythmic   

adj.有节奏的，有韵律的

参考例句：

• Her breathing became more rhythmic.她的呼吸变得更有规律了。
• Good breathing is slow,rhythmic and deep.健康的呼吸方式缓慢深沉而有节奏。

14 inclination   

n.倾斜；点头；弯腰；斜坡；倾度；倾向；爱好

参考例句：

• She greeted us with a slight inclination of the head.她微微点头向我们致意。
• I did not feel the slightest inclination to hurry.我没有丝毫着急的意思。