Researchers have discovered that people with psychopathic traits prefer listening to rap music. The findings have yet to be published, but this early researchers are even willing to go as far as suggest that rap songs could be used to help predict the disorder in the future.
Researchers from New York University looked at how people’s musical preferences correlate with their psychopathic tendencies and results show they have some big news for those who love rap music. It appears that psychopaths are more likely to prefer rap.
During the conduct of the study, 200 people were played 260 songs, and took tests after to assess their psychopathic score. The results also showed that people with the highest psychopath scores turned out to be the biggest fans of rap songs, including the popular No Diggity by Blackstreet, and Lose Yourself by Eminem.
In stark contrast, the study’s findings reveal that people with the lowest psychopath scores preferred pop songs, including The Knack’s My Sharona, and Sia’s Titanium.
The researchers are looking forward to launching a larger study to verify the results. The lead author of the study, Dr. Pascal Wallisch told The Guardian in an interview: “The media portrays psychopaths as axe murderers and serial killers, but the reality is they are not obvious; they are not like The Joker in Batman.”
The author added that psychopaths could turn out to be as ordinary as one’s friendly neighbor or seemingly normal workmate. He added: “They might be working right next to you, and they blend in. They are like psychological dark matter.”
In the follow-up study, the researchers wish to aim to identify whether groups of songs can predict potential psychopaths. Dr. Wallisch warned: “You don’t want to have these people in positions where they can cause a lot of harm. We need a tool to identify them without their cooperation or consent.”
Playslists online can then be used to spot psychopaths.
Source:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-4920738/Psychopaths-prefer-listening-rap-music.html
