THURSDAY, Feb. 9, 2006 (HealthDay News) -- If you think you're going solo in your choice of music, think again: You're probably just joining the choir.
That's the conclusion of a Web-based study, released on the heels of the Grammys, that found that folks tend to like music more when they've heard that others like it, too.
"People may like a particular piece of music, but then the additional testimonial that goes along with it from others can do a lot to help that decision," said Terry Pettijohn Jr., an assistant professor of psychology at Mercyhurst College in Erie, Pa., and an expert on the genesis of social trends.
Pettijohn was not involved in this study, which was conducted by researchers at Columbia University and appears in the Feb. 10 issue of Science.
"Taste" -- in clothes, music, books and other consumer goods -- is a large part of what makes up an individual's sense of personal identity. But the Columbia team wanted to see how big a role the tastes or opinions of others play in an individual's preferences -- in this case, pop music downloaded off the Internet.
To do so, they set up what they called an "artificial music market," recruiting more than 14,000 people from a teen-oriented Web site. These recruits were encouraged to browse through the researchers' own Internet site, which featured a selection of 48 unknown songs of varying quality from unknown bands.
Visitors to the site could rate how much they liked any of the songs using a basic 5-star rating system ranging from "I hate it" (one star) to "I love it" (five stars).
There was a catch, though: The participants were randomly assigned to one of two groups. In the first group, the only information the Web users had on a particular song was the song's title, the artist's name, and the song itself.
The second group had all this data, plus one other piece of information -- how many times the song had been downloaded by others.
As expected, "hit" songs emerged in both groups, the researchers said.
However, popular tracks rose to much higher heights of popularity in the group where individuals were exposed to downloading information. And songs that bombed also bombed much harder in this group, compared to the group where people made their decisions without any information regarding the preferences of others.
"We see this a lot in social psychology, the idea of social influence and persuasion -- the whole idea that other people do influence our decisions in many different ways," Pettijohn said. "I think what's happening here is that you might like something, of course, but then you find out that it's already popular -- and you like it even more."
So, are people being honest with themselves when they believe their taste is devoid of peer or social influences?
"I think the best answer to that is that they just aren't sure," said Pettijohn. "Part of the equation is what other people think about a song or a product. We live in a social world where if we were the only person who liked a particular song, and no one else liked it, we ourselves might not like that song too long, either. Other people don't accept it, and that puts pressure on us to try and fit in."
Individual tastes might even be shaped by broader social or political trends. Last year, Pettijohn published a study tracking Billboard's number-one pop hits of the year for the past 40 years. He found that chart-toppers tended to be lighter and frothier in good times, more somber when things got bad.
Pettijohn stressed that quality does matter when it comes to the popularity of music or any other art form. "In this study, the best songs rarely did poorly, and the worst songs rarely did well," he pointed out. "So, there does have to be a quality product to begin with."
But good word-of-mouth doesn't hurt, a fact record companies have long been hip to. "Right now, if you go to iTunes [Apple's music download site], they actually have 'celebrity playlists,' " Pettijohn said. "So, if you really like Beyonce and she has 'My Playlist' up there, you can go on and see what she likes."
And, of course, exposure is everything, which is why record companies, movie studios and other media bombard the public with each new release, hoping to generate "buzz."
"If your friends are telling you to listen to these songs because they heard it from someone else, that's exactly how things catch on," Pettijohn said.
More information
For more on the psychology of musical taste, head to the American Psychological Association.
