A groundbreaking study, recently published in PLOS ONE, has uncovered a fascinating connection between people’s musical preferences and their moral values. This research sheds new light on the profound influence that music can have on our moral compass, revealing the intricate interplay between music and morality.
Conducted by a team of scientists at Queen Mary University of London and ISI Foundation in Turin, Italy, this study utilized advanced machine learning techniques to analyze the lyrics and audio features of individuals’ favorite songs. The results were astonishing, providing compelling evidence that music preferences can serve as a window into an individual’s moral values.
Dr. Charalampos Saitis, one of the senior authors of the study and a Lecturer in Digital Music Processing at Queen Mary University of London, stated, “Our study provides compelling evidence that music preferences can serve as a window into an individual’s moral values.” The researchers used an existing dataset of over 1,400 participants who completed psychometric questionnaires assessing their moral values and shared information about their favorite artists through Facebook Page Likes.
By extracting acoustic and lyrical features from the top five songs of each participant’s preferred artists and employing ML algorithms, the team was able to predict participants’ moral values. They used various text processing techniques, including lexicon-based methods and BERT-based embeddings, to analyze narrative, moral values, sentiment, and emotions in lyrics. Additionally, they utilized low- and high-level audio features provided via Spotify’s API to gain insights into the encoded information in participants’ musical choices, further enhancing moral inferences.
The results were remarkable, showing that a combination of lyrical and audio features surpassed basic demographic information in predicting individuals’ moral compasses. Musical elements like pitch and timbre emerged as crucial predictors for values of Care and Fairness, while sentiments and emotions expressed in lyrics were more effective in predicting traits of Loyalty, Authority, and Purity.
Vjosa Preniqi, the lead author of the study and a Ph.D. student in Queen Mary’s Center for Doctoral Training in Data-informed Audience-centric Media Engineering, remarked, “Our findings reveal that music is not merely a source of entertainment or aesthetic pleasure; it is also a powerful medium that reflects and shapes our moral sensibilities.” This connection between music and morality opens up new avenues for music-based interventions that promote positive moral development.
The implications of this study go beyond academic curiosity, potentially impacting how we engage with and utilize music in various aspects of life. Dr. Kyriaki Kalimeri, senior co-author of the study and a researcher at ISI Foundation, commented, “Our breakthrough can pave the way for applications ranging from personalized music experiences to innovative music therapy and communication campaigns.” This research has uncovered an important link between music and morality, providing a deeper understanding of the psychological dimensions of our musical experiences.
Vjosa Preniqi concluded, “We are excited to continue exploring this rich and uncharted territory.” The study was conducted using data from the LikeYouth Facebook application, a research-focused survey tool that has engaged over 64,000 participants primarily in Italy. Participants provided voluntary and informed consent, completing various psychometric surveys, including the Moral Foundations Questionnaire (MFQ), and sharing demographic details and Facebook Page Likes.
