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Personality predicts musical preference better than age, education, or gender.

Major and minor chords activate different brain circuits linked to emotion and processing.

Extroverts often prefer stimulating music; introverts lean toward calm, relaxing tunes.

Do you prefer music written in a major or a minor key? It turns out this preference might just depend on your personality. So, let’s start at the beginning and look at what personality is.

The APA defines personality as “the enduring configuration of characteristics and behavior that comprises an individual’s unique adjustment to life, including major traits, interests, drives, values, self-concept, abilities, and emotional patterns.” (American Psychological Association, 2018). We can see personality in any number of things we do, from whether or not we like spicy food to the characteristics we seek in a partner, and even a preference for music in a particular key.

Hans and Sylvia Eysenck proposed a very influential model of personality based on biology and genetics (Psychologists World, 2026). The Eysencks proposed a “trait model” of personality. Traits are stable characteristics of a person, like the way they think or behave, that distinguish that person from everyone else. Traits are often arranged on a continuum from high to low levels of that characteristic at either end. A given individual might show a lot of a trait, or only a little of it. The real question for researchers quickly became how many traits might there be.

The Eysencks proposed what has come to be called PEN theory, suggesting our personalities were composed of three traits:

Psychoticism/Normality. Someone characterized by high Psychoticism might be irresponsible, unwilling to accept social norms, and needing gratification........

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