Schizotypy, Masculinity, Psychological Defense, and Enjoyment of Death Metal Music

How does personality shape people’s music preferences? The present work contributes to the growing literature addressing this question by investigating individual-difference correlates of enjoyment of death metal music. We focus on four traits—schizotypy, masculinity, need to belong (NTB), and need for uniqueness (NFU). Across two studies, participants completed personality measures, listened to a clip from a representative death metal song, and answered questions regarding their enjoyment of death metal. To assess a theorized causal mechanism, namely that a need for psychological security may motivate liking death metal among those high in our variables of interest, existential concerns were heightened via a Mortality Salience (MS) induction. MS-priming did not increase enjoyment of death metal in either study. Enjoyment of death metal was associated with higher levels of schizotypy and masculinity in both studies. Mediation analysis of both studies also revealed an indirect effect of NFU on enjoyment of death metal through schizotypy. These results suggest that, of the variables examined, schizotypy is the most robust predictor for enjoying death metal. Although enjoyment of death metal may be related to psychological defense, our findings indicate that this relationship is likely more complex than can be captured using traditional priming manipulations.