Music and emotion: A study of the relationship between musical preference and emotional intelligence

Abstract

The concept of emotion is one that is deeply connected to both Musical Preferences (MP) and Emotional Intelligence (EI) inter alia. In fact, many people identify different emotions in their day-to-day engagements with different musical types. Identification of emotions in stimuli such as in sounds, faces and pictures has also been established ipso facto by scholars as an important aspect of EI. It thus appears axiomatic that aspects of music and emotional intelligence should be significantly related. However, the empirical evidence to support this claim is still wanting. Employing a mixed-methods design with a sample of 100 undergraduate students, I explored the relationship between MP and EI. The Short Test of Musical Preferences and the Mayer-Salovey-Caruso Emotional Intelligence Test were used to collect data on MP and EI respectively. Inferential and descriptive statistical tools were used to test the hypotheses of relationships between the two variables. Qualitative analytical tools, such as thematic analysis, were also used to aid the explanations of the emergent quantitative outcomes. The findings revealed that the Upbeat and Conventional, and the Intense and Rebellious music dimensions were positively and negatively correlated respectively, with the overall EI scores of participants. Whereas Soundtracks/Theme songs correlated positively with participant’s EI scores, Rock music correlated negatively. Thus, there was ample evidence to believe that MP and EI are related.