The music we listen to can tell a lot more than you might think about what kind of people we are, according to research findings by a University of Leicester psychologist.

Now, Dr Adrian North is extending his research worldwide. He is looking for 10,000 people from all over the world to take part in an online survey at www.musicaltastetest.com, stating their preference from over 50 musical styles and completing a questionnaire.

The survey, funded by the British Academy, will help Dr North and his team determine to what extent people's musical tastes can be predicted on the basis of basic demographic information, such as age, sex and earnings.

Dr North said, "Although we know a lot about musical preference, musicaltastetest.com is the largest ever academic survey of who likes what. Nothing on this scale has ever been attempted before."

Related research by Dr North about to be published in the journal Psychology of Music shows that a person's musical preference tells a great deal about their lifestyle and interests. Over 2,500 people in the UK were asked to state which musical styles they liked most, and then complete a questionnaire about their living arrangements, political and moral beliefs, travel, personal finances, education, employment, health, media preferences, and leisure time interests.

When it comes to relationships, beliefs and breaking the law, fans of different musical styles gave very different responses, with fans of hip-hop and dance music standing out in particular. 37.5% of hip-hop fans and 28.7% of dance music fans had had more than one sexual partner in the past five years, (compared with, for example, 1.5% of country fans). They were also the least likely to be religious, least likely to recycle, least likely to favour the development of alternative energy sources, least likely to favour raising taxes in order to improve public services, and least likely to favour the retention of a National Health Service.

In addition, they were more likely to have broken the law. 56.9% of dance music fans and 53.1% of hip hop fans admitted to having committed a criminal act (compared, for example, to just 17.9% of fans of musicals). Hip hop and dance music fans were more likely to have tried a range of illegal drugs. However, about a quarter of the classical music and opera fans admitted to having tried cannabis, and 12.3% of opera fans had tried magic mushrooms.

On questions concerning money, education, employment and health, fans were separated along the lines of socio-economic status. Fans of classical music and opera had lifestyles indicative of the middle and upper classes. They had an average annual income of £35,000 before tax, whereas dance music fans earned only £23,311. Classical music and opera fans also paid a much higher proportion of their credit card bills each month than fans of dance music (75% and 49% respectively).

They were also more likely to have been educated to a higher level. 6.8% of opera fans had a PhD, compared to none of the chart pop fans. When it comes to eating, fans of classical music, opera and jazz tended to spend rather more money on food and preferred to drink wine to a greater extent than fans of other musical styles.

Results also showed that fans of different musical styles often had different tastes in the media. Viewers of BBC1 are more likely to be fans of rock or classical music, whereas ITV1's viewers are more likely to listen to disco and pop music. Readers of broadsheet newspapers are more likely to listen to classical and rock music, compared to readers of the tabloids, who prefer dance music, pop and music from the sixties.

Dr North added: "Surprisingly, there have been very few studies on how people's age, sex, socioeconomic status, and personality relate to the music they enjoy listening to. Moreover, this limited amount of research has focussed almost exclusively on North America. This is despite the fact that music is enjoyed by people all around the world and, in addition, there are numerous stereotypes about the types of people who listen to certain musical styles that may or may not be true (e.g. goths are depressed, classical music fans are upper-class, jazz fans are like the presenter of The Fast Show's 'Jazz Club' etc.).

"Musicaltastetest.com aims to recruit over 10,000 people to paint the first worldwide picture of who likes what."

Below are examples of the main musical preferences among people who watch different TV stations, listen to different radio stations, and read different newspapers. The numbers refer to the number of people who nominated the musical style in question. For example, of the 870 people whose favourite TV channel was BBC1, 77 liked rock music the most, making it the most popular musical style among BBC1 viewers.

BBC1 -- TOTAL 870

ROCK 77
CLASSICAL 74
ADULT POP 58
MUSICALS 57
DISCO 51
SIXTIES 47
R&B 45
CHART POP 43
INDIE 39
SOUL 35
DANCE/HOUSE 33
BLUES 31
COUNTRY&WESTERN 28
OTHER POP 27
OPERA 25
JAZZ 25
OTHER 20
DJ BASED 19
CHORAL 17
HIP HOP/RAP 17
BAROQUE 12
IRISH FOLK 12
REGGAE 11
FUNK/ACID JAZZ 10
HEAVY METAL 10
DRUM 'N' BASS 9
WORLD MUSIC 8
PUNK 8
ENGLISH FOLK 7
NEW AGE/RELAXATION 5
20TH C CLASSICAL 3
RENAISSANCE 3
AMBIENT 2
PSYCHEDELIC 2
ELECTRONIC 0

BBC2 -- TOTAL 163
ADULT POP 14
CLASSICAL 12
SIXTIES 12
INDIE 11
JAZZ 10
OPERA 9
ROCK 9
CHORAL 8
SOUL 7
DISCO 7
BLUES 7
DANCE/HOUSE 5
MUSICALS 5
OTHER 5
HIP HOP/RAP 4
BAROQUE 4
HEAVY METAL 4
COUNTRY&WESTERN 3
R&B 3
WORLD MUSIC 3
AMBIENT 3
CHART POP 2
DRUM 'N' BASS 2
PSYCHEDELIC 2
PUNK 2
DJ BASED 2
OTHER POP 2
20TH C CLASSICAL 1
ENGLISH FOLK 1
IRISH FOLK 1
ELECTRONIC 1
NEW AGE/RELAXATION 0
RENAISSANCE 0
REGGAE 0

ITV1 -- TOTAL 452
DISCO 43
ADULT POP 34
ROCK 33
CHART POP 33
SIXTIES 28
DANCE HOUSE 26
R&B 24
OTHER POP 21
SOUL 20
COUNTRY&WESTERN 17
INDIE 16
CLASSICAL 15
MUSICALS 15
HIP HOP/RAP 14
OPERA 11
DJ BASED 11
JAZZ 9
REGGAE 9
IRISH FOLK 9
OTHER 9
ELECTRONIC 8
WORLD MUSIC 7
PUNK 6
FUNK/ACID JAZZ 6
AMBIENT 5
BLUES 5
HEAVY METAL 5
ENGLISH FOLK 3
DRUM 'N' BASS 2
BAROQUE 2
NEW AGE/RELAXATION 2
PSYCHEDELIC 2
CHORAL 1
20TH C CLASSICAL 1
RENAISSANCE 0

CHANNEL 4 -- TOTAL 244
DANCE/HOUSE 24
INDIE 22
R&B 20
DRUM 'N' BASS 16
HIP HOP/RAP 15
SOUL 14
ROCK 13
DJ BASED 12
CHART POP 10
DISCO 10
MUSICALS 9
FUNK/ACID JAZZ 9
JAZZ 8
REGGAE 8
OTHER 8
CLASSICAL 6
AMBIENT 6
PUNK 5
ADULT POP 4
OTHER POP 4
OPERA 3
BAROQUE 3
BLUES 3
IRISH FOLK 3
COUNTRY&WESTERN 2
SIXTIES 2
CHORAL 1
20TH C CLASSICAL 1
ENGLISH FOLK 1
ELECTRONIC 1
HEAVY METAL 1
WORLD MUSIC 0
NEW AGE/RELAXATION 0
PSYCHEDELIC 0
RENAISSANCE 0

CHANNEL 5 -- TOTAL 61
R&B 6
DANCE/HOUSE 6
HIP HOP/RAP 5
DISCO 4
ROCK 3
SOUL 3
CLASSICAL 3
MUSICALS 3
SIXTIES 3
HEAVY METAL 3
OPERA 2
JAZZ 2
WORLD MUSIC 2
BLUES 2
PUNK 2
ADULT POP 2
FUNK/ACID JAZZ 2
COUNTRY&WESTERN 1
CHART POP 1
DRUM 'N' BASS 1
REGGAE 1
INDIE 1
IRISH FOLK 1
DJ BASED 1
OTHER POP 1
CHORAL 0
20TH C CLASSICAL 0
AMBIENT 0
BAROQUE 0
ENGLISH FOLK 0
NEW AGE/RELAXATION 0
PSYCHEDELIC 0
RENAISSANCE 0
ELECTRONIC 0
OTHER 0

BBC RADIO 1 -- TOTAL 937
DANCE/HOUSE 98
R&B 88
INDIE 77
CHART POP 68
ROCK 60
DISCO 60
DJ BASED 52
SOUL 45
HIP HOP/RAP 45
OTHER POP 31
OTHER 30
ADULT POP 28
DRUM 'N' BASS 25
FUNK/ACID JAZZ 25
MUSICALS 24
SIXTIES 21
CLASSICAL 20
JAZZ 17
HEAVY METAL 16
COUNTRY&WESTERN 15
REGGAE 15
PUNK 14
AMBIENT 13
OPERA 9
WORLD MUSIC 6
IRISH FOLK 6
ELECTRONIC 6
BAROQUE 4
ENGLISH FOLK 3
PSYCHEDELIC 3
CHORAL 2
NEW AGE/RELAXATION 1
RENAISSANCE 1
20TH C CLASSICAL 0

BBC RADIO 2 -- TOTAL 258
ADULT POP 35
SIXTIES 27
ROCK 24
MUSICALS 24
CLASSICAL 23
COUNTRY&WESTERN 17
DISCO 17
OTHER POP 13
JAZZ 11
IRISH FOLK 10
BLUES 9
SOUL 7
CHORAL 7
OPERA 6
R&B 6
CHART POP 4
BAROQUE 4
OTHER 4
WORLD MUSIC 3
DANCE/HOUSE 2
ENGLISH FOLK 2
20TH C CLASSICAL 1
REGGAE 1
DJ BASED 1
DRUM 'N' BASS 0
HIP HOP/RAP 0
AMBIENT 0
NEW AGE/RELAXATION 0
PSYCHEDELIC 0
RENAISSANCE 0
INDIE 0
PUNK 0
ELECTRONIC 0
FUNK/ACID JAZZ 0
HEAVY METAL 0

BBC RADIO 4 -- TOTAL 295
CLASSICAL 40
MUSICALS 24
SIXTIES 21
ADULT POP 20
OPERA 19
ROCK 16
SOUL 16
INDIE 16
JAZZ 14
CHORAL 13
BLUES 13
DISCO 12
COUNTRY&WESTERN 11
IRISH FOLK 8
CHART POP 6
20TH C CLASSICAL 5
BAROQUE 5
ENGLISH FOLK 5
OTHER 5
FUNK/ACID JAZZ 4
R&B 3
WORLD MUSIC 3
REGGAE 3
HEAVY METAL 3
DANCE/HOUSE 2
NEW AGE/RELAXATION 2
PUNK 2
OTHER POP 2
AMBIENT 1
PSYCHEDELIC 1
DRUM 'N' BASS 0
HIP HOP/RAP 0
RENAISSANCE 0
ELECTRONIC 0
DJ BASED 0

BBC RADIO 5 LIVE -- TOTAL 97
ROCK 7
BLUES 7
INDIE 7
ADULT POP 7
DISCO 6
SIXTIES 6
REGGAE 6
SOUL 5
MUSICALS 5
OTHER POP 5
CHART POP 4
CLASSICAL 4
OPERA 3
DANCE/HOUSE 3
FUNK/ACID JAZZ 3
DJ BASED 3
JAZZ 2
PUNK 2
HEAVY METAL 2
OTHER 2
COUNTRY&WESTERN 1
R&B 1
CHORAL 1
HIP HOP/RAP 1
WORLD MUSIC 1
AMBIENT 1
IRISH FOLK 1
ELECTRONIC 1
20TH C CLASSICAL 0
DRUM 'N' BASS 0
BAROQUE 0
ENGLISH FOLK 0
NEW AGE/RELAXATION 0
PSYCHEDELIC 0
RENAISSANCE 0

CLASSIC FM -- TOTAL 74
CLASSICAL 17
ROCK 7
BAROQUE 6
OPERA 5
MUSICALS 5
IRISH FOLK 5
CHORAL 4
ADULT POP 4
COUNTRY&WESTERN 3
CHART POP 2
R&B 2
WORLD MUSIC 2
INDIE 2
HEAVY METAL 2
OTHER 2
SOUL 1
DANCE/HOUSE 1
HIP HOP/RAP 1
BLUES 1
SIXTIES 1
PUNK 1
JAZZ 0
DISCO 0
20TH C CLASSICAL 0
DRUM 'N' BASS 0
AMBIENT 0
ENGLISH FOLK 0
NEW AGE/RELAXATION 0
PSYCHEDELIC 0
RENAISSANCE 0
REGGAE 0
ELECTRONIC 0
FUNK/ACID JAZZ 0
DJ BASED 0
OTHER POP 0

THE TIMES -- TOTAL 363
CLASSICAL 35
ROCK 25
R&B 23
SOUL 22
ADULT POP 21
MUSICALS 19
SIXTIES 19
INDIE 19
DISCO 18
OPERA 15
HIP HOP/RAP 15
OTHER POP 13
JAZZ 12
BLUES 12
DANCE/HOUSE 11
CHART POP 9
REGGAE 8
CHORAL 7
IRISH FOLK 7
OTHER 7
COUNTRY&WESTERN 6
PUNK 6
DRUM 'N' BASS 5
HEAVY METAL 5
WORLD MUSIC 4
ENGLISH FOLK 4
FUNK/ACID JAZZ 4
DJ BASED 4
BAROQUE 3
AMBIENT 2
ELECTRONIC 3
20TH C CLASSICAL 1
NEW AGE/RELAXATION 0
PSYCHEDELIC 0
RENAISSANCE 0

THE GUARDIAN -- TOTAL 209
ROCK 15
CLASSICAL 12
ADULT POP 12
R&B 11
CHART POP 10
SOUL 10
DANCE/HOUSE 10
SIXTIES 10
INDIE 10
OPERA 9
JAZZ 9
MUSICALS 9
FUNK/ACID JAZZ 9
HIP HOP/RAP 7
DISCO 6
DRUM 'N' BASS 6
IRISH FOLK 6
OTHER 6
AMBIENT 5
BLUES 5
DJ BASED 5
BAROQUE 4
REGGAE 4
OTHER POP 4
PUNK 3
COUNTRY&WESTERN 2
CHORAL 2
WORLD MUSIC 2
20TH C CLASSICAL 1
ENGLISH FOLK 1
NEW AGE/RELAXATION 1
PSYCHEDELIC 1
RENAISSANCE 1
HEAVY METAL 1
ELECTRONIC 0

INDEPENDENT -- TOTAL 85
ROCK 11
DANCE/HOUSE 7
DJ BASED 5
SOUL 4
AMBIENT 4
INDIE 4
OPERA 3
JAZZ 3
CLASSICAL 3
MUSICALS 3
BLUES 3
REGGAE 3
PUNK 3
ADULT POP 3
OTHER 3
CHART POP 2
DISCO 2
DRUM 'N' BASS 2
SIXTIES 2
FUNK/ACID JAZZ 2
HEAVY METAL 2
COUNTRY&WESTERN 1
R&B 1
CHORAL 1
20TH C CLASSICAL 1
BAROQUE 1
ENGLISH FOLK 1
NEW AGE/RELAXATION 1
RENAISSANCE 1
IRISH FOLK 1
ELECTRONIC 1
OTHER POP 1
HIP HOP/RAP 0
WORLD MUSIC 0
PSYCHEDELIC 0

TELEGRAPH -- TOTAL 143
CLASSICAL 17
ROCK 14
INDIE 10
ADULT POP 9
DISCO 8
MUSICALS 8
OPERA 6
COUNTRY&WESTERN 6
CHART POP 6
CHORAL 6
SIXTIES 6
SOUL 5
WORLD MUSIC 5
BLUES 5
OTHER POP 5
FUNK/ACID JAZZ 4
DJ BASED 4
HIP HOP/RAP 3
JAZZ 2
R&B 2
DANCE/HOUSE 2
BAROQUE 2
REGGAE 2
HEAVY METAL 2
AMBIENT 1
NEW AGE/RELAXATION 1
IRISH FOLK 1
OTHER 1
20TH C CLASSICAL 0
DRUM 'N' BASS 0
ENGLISH FOLK 0
PSYCHEDELIC 0
RENAISSANCE 0
PUNK 0
ELECTRONIC 0

THE MIRROR -- TOTAL 245
SIXTIES 21
ROCK 19
COUNTRY&WESTERN 18
R&B 17
DISCO 16
MUSICALS 16
CHART POP 13
CLASSICAL 13
HIP HOP/RAP 13
DANCE/HOUSE 10
ADULT POP 10
INDIE 9
OTHER POP 9
BLUES 8
IRISH FOLK 8
DJ BASED 8
SOUL 6
DRUM 'N' BASS 6
JAZZ 4
FUNK/ACID JAZZ 4
OTHER 4
HEAVY METAL 3
ENGLISH FOLK 2
PSYCHEDELIC 2
REGGAE 2
PUNK 2
CHORAL 1
BAROQUE 1
OPERA 0
20TH C CLASSICAL 0
WORLD MUSIC 0
AMBIENT 0
NEW AGE/RELAXATION 0
RENAISSANCE 0
ELECTRONIC 0

DAILY MAIL -- TOTAL 446
ADULT POP 37
DISCO 36
ROCK 31
MUSICALS 31
CHART POP 30
SIXTIES 27
CLASSICAL 25
R&B 24
SOUL 23
DANCE/HOUSE 23
JAZZ 22
COUNTRY&WESTERN 17
OPERA 13
INDIE 13
OTHER POP 12
BLUES 10
DJ BASED 9
HIP HOP/RAP 8
IRISH FOLK 8
FUNK/ACID JAZZ 8
OTHER 8
REGGAE 7
CHORAL 6
HEAVY METAL 5
WORLD MUSIC 3
DRUM 'N' BASS 2
AMBIENT 2
BAROQUE 2
ENGLISH FOLK 2
NEW AGE/RELAXATION 1
RENAISSANCE 1
20TH C CLASSICAL 0
PSYCHEDELIC 0
PUNK 0
ELECTRONIC 0

THE SUN -- TOTAL 287
DANCE/HOUSE 25
R&B 22
ROCK 20
DISCO 20
INDIE 20
SIXTIES 17
ADULT POP 17
CHART POP 15
OTHER 15
DJ BASED 12
OTHER POP 12
CLASSICAL 10
COUNTRY&WESTERN 9
DRUM 'N' BASS 8
MUSICALS 8
SOUL 7
HIP HOP/RAP 6
PUNK 6
REGGAE 5
FUNK/ACID JAZZ 5

(Eurekalert, contribuiu Charles Pilger; versão em português disponível na BBCBrasil)