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Researchers at the University of Cambridge have linked musical taste to cognitive style, or the way you think.

In a recently published study, a team of psychologists led by PhD student David Greenberg looked at how cognitive style influences musical choices by determining the degree to which a person is empathetic (in touch with the feelings of others) or “systemizing”(analytical).

“Although people’s music choices fluctuates over time, we’ve discovered a person’s empathy levels and thinking style predicts what kind of music they like,” Greenberg said, noting that cognitive style can be a better predictor of what music a person likes than personality traits.

The researchers conducted multiple studies with more than 4,000 participants, recruited mainly through the myPersonality Facebook app, and found that people who scored high on empathy tended to prefer mellow music (R&B, soft rock, and adult contemporary genres), unpretentious music (country, folk, and singer/songwriter genres) and contemporary music (electronica, Latin, acid jazz, and Euro pop). “Empathizers” disliked intense music, such as punk and heavy metal.

Probing deeper, empathizers preferred music with low energy (gentle, reflective, sensual, and warm elements), negative emotions (sad and depressing characteristics), or emotional depth (poetic, relaxing, and thoughtful features).

In contrast, “systemizers” favored intense music but disliked mellow and unpretentious musical styles. They preferred music with high energy (strong, tense, and thrilling elements), positive emotions (animated and fun features), or a high degree of cerebral depth and complexity.

Results were consistent even within specified genres: Empathizers preferred mellow, unpretentious jazz, while systemizers preferred more complex, avant-garde jazz.

“A lot of money is put into algorithms to choose what music you may want to listen to, for example on Spotify and Apple Music,” concluded Greenberg, a trained jazz saxophonist. “By knowing an individual’s thinking style, such services might in future be able to fine tune their music recommendations to an individual.”

So are you an empathizer or systemizer?

More information on the study is available here.