Mediating Role of Religious Attitude on The Relationship Between Personality and Music Preferences
Ayşe Kaya GöktepeThis study examines the role of religious attitude on the relationship between personality and music preferences. A quantitative research design is chosen, and the correlational model is applied. The sample consists of 317 people between the ages of 18 and 57. The Five Factor Personality Scale, which was validated by Horzum et al., and the Religious Attitude Scale developed by Üzeyir Ok, demographic form and music preference form are used in this study. Regression and mediation analysis are done via SPSS 25. It was found that religious attitudes played a mediating role in the relationship between personality types and music preferences. It has been observed that pop music preference has a positive and significant relationship with self-control, neuroticism, openness to experience, extraversion, and agreeableness, especially when the relationship with God dimension of religious attitude is the mediator. The positive correlation between Western classical music and jazz music preferences and between extraversion and openness to experience was turned into a negative correlation at a significant level when all dimensions of religious attitude are mediators. It was found that a significant positive correlation between Sufi music preference and openness to experience and agreeableness when the emotional and behavioral dimensions of religious attitude mediated. The mediating role of religious attitude in the relationship between personality and music preference is related to both a perception of religion intertwined with music education and the aspect of music that offers religious experience.
Kişilik Tipleri ve Müzik Tercihleri Arasındaki İlişkide Dinî Tutumun Aracı Rolü
Ayşe Kaya GöktepeBu araştırmanın amacı kişilik ve müzik tercihleri arasındaki ilişkide dinî tutumun rolünü incelemektir. Nicel araştırma desenlerinden ilişkisel tarama kullanılmış ve dinî tutumun aracı rolünü incelemek için aracı değişken araştırma modeline başvurulmuştur. Araştırmanın örneklemi 18-57 yaş arası 317 kişiden oluşmaktadır. Bu çalışmada Horzum ve diğerlerinin geçerlilik çalışmasını yaptığı Beş Faktör Kişilik Ölçeği, Üzeyir Ok’un geliştirdiği Dinî Tutum Ölçeği ile araştırmacı tarafından hazırlanan demografik form ve müzik tercih formu kullanılmıştır. SPSS 25.0 programı kullanılarak regresyon ve aracı değişken analizleri yapılmıştır. Elde edilen bulgular, kişilik tipleri ve müzik tercihleri arasındaki ilişkide dinî tutumun ara bulucu rolü olduğunu göstermiştir. Bilhassa dinî tutumun Tanrıyla kurulan ilişki boyutu aracı olduğunda pop müzik tercihinin özdenetimlilik, nörotiklik, deneyime açıklık, dışa dönüklük ve yumuşak başlılık ile pozitif yönlü ve anlamlı bir ilişkisi olduğu gözlenmiştir. Klasik Batı müziği ve caz müzik tercihleriyle ve dışa dönüklük ve deneyime açıklık arasındaki pozitif ilişkinin dinî tutumun tüm boyutları söz konusu olduğunda negatife dönerek anlamlı düzeye eriştiği bulgulanmıştır. Tasavvuf müzik tercihiyle deneyime açıklık ve yumuşak başlılık arasındaki pozitif korrelasyonun ise, dinî tutumun duygu ve davranış boyutları aracı olduğunda anlamlılık düzeyine eriştiği bulgulanmıştır. Söz konusu bulgular, kişilik ve müzik tercihi ilişkisinde dinî tutumun ara bulucu rolü, hem müzik eğitimiyle iç içe geçmiş bir din algısı hem de müziğin dinî tecrübe sunan bir yanı olmasıyla ilişkili görülmüştür.
Introduction
It is known that many psychosocial factors are effective in the formation of music preferences, so the relationship between music genres and personality types has been the subject of many researches. Sometimes, attitudes that may vary depending on certain social situations rather than personality types have also effect on the music preferences. However, it is a matter of curiosity about what type of role attitudes play in the relationship between music preferences and personality types. This research examines the role of religious attitudes in the relationship between personality types and music preferences. It has been observed that the body of the literature examining the relationship between religious attitudes and music preferences is limited, and these studies do not include other factors that may affect the relationship between religious attitudes and music preferences, and these studies are often conducted with sample groups that are university students.i Although the studies mention that the music provides religious experience and affiliation in religious groups, it has not been mentioned how it changes religious attitudes and how these variables are related to personality traits.ii Therefore, the research question is "What is the role of religious attitude in the relationship between personality types and music preferences?". Religious attitudes may not only be related to religious music preference, and it is still ambiguous to what extent the religious attitudes are effective in the preference of certain personality types for certain types of music. Therefore, the unique aspect of this research is examining the role of personality types and religious attitudes in determining music preference.
Methodology
This research examines the mediating role of religious attitude in the relationship between personality and music preferences via the correlational method. Personality is the IV, music preference is the DV, and religious attitude is the mediator variable (MV).
The population of this research is adults between the ages of 18-57 living in Turkey. The sample comprises 317 people which is set non-randomly. 74.8% of the sample is women (n = 237) 25.2% is men (n = 80). 13.6% (n=43) of the sample is 25 years old or younger, 38.2% (n=121) is between 26-35 years old, 32.8% (n=104) is between 36-45 years old, 12.6% is 46-55 age range, and 2.2% (n=7) is 56 years old or older. Participants' level of perceived religiosity as it follows: 12.6% (n=40) indicated “I am not religious”, 21.1% (n=67) said “I am a little religious”, 58.7% (n=186) said “I am religious”, and 7% said “I am religious”, 3% of them (n=23) said, "I am very religious". 31.2% (n=99) of the participants reported that they got musical education, and 68.8% (n=218) reported that they did not get musical education.
The Five Factor Personality Scale, validated by Horzum et al. on 218 high school students, is a 10-item personality scale by Rammstedt and John. It is a 5-Likert type and includes 5 sub-scales: extraversion, agreeableness, selfcontrol, neuroticism, and openness to experience, and includes 2 items from each sub-dimension, making a total of 10 items. The second scale is the Religious Attitude Scale developed by Üzeyir Ok which consists of 8 items. It is a 5-Likert-type scale that has 4 sub-scales: cognition, behavior, emotion, and the relationship with God (RwG). Demographic form and music preference form are used as well. This research was conducted after receiving the approval of the Ethics Committee of Istanbul Sabahattin Zaim University numbered E-20292139-050.01.04-56507 on 31.05.2023, and all ethical concerns were carefully met.
Results
There are significant relationships between personality types and music preferences. Agreeableness is found to be positively related to Turkish Classical Music (TCM) (r=.166, p<.001). Extraversion is found to be significantly positively related only to Jazz (r=.120, p<.05) and Western classical music (WCM) (r=.110, p=.051), but the pvalue remained very close to the significance level. A significant negative correlation is found between self-control and metal/rock music (r=-.163, p<.05). Neuroticism, on the other hand, is found to be negatively related to both WCM (r=-.192, p<.001) and Jazz Music (r=-.142, p<.05). Finally, the openness to experience is positively correlated with WCM (r=.389, p<.001), jazz music (r=.312 p<.001) and metal/rock (r=.204, p<.001) at significant level.
Furthermore, the Relationship with God (RwG) dimension of religious attitude serves as a mediator in the relationship between pop music and openness to experience. However, it functions as a partial mediating variable in the relationship between neuroticism, self-control, agreeableness, and extraversion and pop music. On the other hand, the positive significant correlation between WCM and jazz preference and extraversion turned to negative when all dimensions of the religious attitude were mediators but Sobel test results showed no significant level, so religious attitude is a partial mediating variable in the correlation between extraversion and WCM & jazz preferences. It is found that the significant negative relationship between rock and openness to experience becomes stronger when all of the dimensions of religious attitude are mediating variables (p<.05). While the positive correlation between agreeableness turned to significant while the emotional dimension of religious attitude is a mediator (F(2, 314)=3.470, p= .032, R=.101), and the correlation between agreeableness and Sufi Music became significant if both of the emotional (F(2,314)=3.470, p=.032, R=.101) and behavioral (F(2,314)=5.199, p=.006, R=.147) dimensions of religious attitude are mediators (p<.05).
The negative relationship between neuroticism-WCM is found significant if the cognitive (F(2,314)=24.109, p=.000, R=-.313) and emotional (F(2,314)=19.815, p=.000, R=-.276) dimensions of the religious attitude were found to be mediator variables (p<.05). The negative relationship between neuroticism-jazz are found significant if the cognitive (F(2,314)=39.816, p=.000, R=-.430) and emotional (F(2,314)=32.436, p=.04, R=-.391) dimensions of religious attitude are mediator variables (p<.05). As a matter of fact, this finding is significant by considering the perceived level of religiosity who prefer jazz of which 60% of the people indicated that they are not religious, 10% are somewhat religious and 30% are religious. It has been observed that the cognitive and emotional dimensions of religious attitude have a mediating variable role in the significant relationship between neuroticism and jazz and WCM.
Conclusion
The mediating role of religious attitude in the relationship between personality and music preference is related to both a perception of religion intertwined with musical education and the aspect of music that offers a religious experience. However, it is still ambiguous whether the relationship between personality and music preference is related to one dimension of personality or another component.
Since the music has an aspect that can provide religious experience, it is expected that the role of religious attitude in music preferences is significant. A positive correlation between Turkish Folk Music (TFM) and Sufi music and agreeableness indicates the unity of religion and music in the Turkish tradition. Mevlevi lodges offered highquality musical education at that time and Itrî, one of the respected and master musicians was also Mevlevi. It shows the intertwined relationship between religion and music in the Turkish history of classical music tradition. When it comes to TFM, music appears as a conveyer of religious values, on a basis where Anatolian folk poets transmit values from generation to generation through folk songs.
The positive relationship between Sufism and openness to experience reaches a significant level when the emotional and behavioral dimensions of religion are mediators. It also brings to mind the close connection between Sufi music and Mevlevi culture. The reed instrument (ney) is at the center of Sufi music and the reed is considered as a symbol of perfect human being (insan-ı kâmil) by Mevlâna (Rumî). While the Mevlevi dervish lodge experiences the process of evolution under the guidance of the sheikh (seyr-i süluk) similarly, traditional Turkish musical education progresses through the master-apprentice relationship (meşk system). Considering the components of the traditional background of Sufi music and its relation with religious events, it can be expected that those who prefer Sufi music will display the personality trait of openness to experience less than other types of music.