重金属音乐迷往往具有反社会人格和侵略性，喜欢慢情歌的人往往是多愁善感的，古典音乐迷往往自命不凡。

While many would probably deny these stereotypes hold any weight, the links between music and personality are being seriously investigated by teams of psychologists.

很多人可能对这种说法不以为然，但是一群心理学家却对音乐和个人性格之间的联系进行了严肃认真的调查研究。

One such expert from Cambridge has now created a quiz to put these theories to the test - and you can take it to find out what your music personality is.

一位来自剑桥的心理学家运用这些理论做了一项测试，通过这项测试你可以找出自己的音乐个性是什么。

To take the quiz, go to musicaluniverse.org and select the Musical Test.

你可以登录musicaluniverse.org网，选择音乐测试即可参加测试。

你的音乐偏好是如何体现个性特质的？

David Greenberg, a psychologist at the University of Cambridge, is one of the researchers working on the 'Musical Universe' project.

剑桥大学的心理学家大卫·格林伯格是“音乐世界”项目的研究人员之一。

Mr Greenberg has quizzed thousands of people, first giving them a written test to analyse their personalities and then finding out what types of music they prefer.

格林伯格先生调查研究了数千人，首先给他们一个书面测试来分析他们的性格，然后找出他们喜欢什么类型的音乐。

Mr Greenberg said: 'We've found that musical preferences are linked to three brain types.'

格林伯格说：“我们已经发现，音乐偏好与三种大脑类型有关。”

He said those who have a well-developed ability to understand thoughts and feelings in themselves and others, so-called 'empathisers', prefer mellow music that evokes deep emotion.

他说，能够充分理解他人和自己想法和感受的人，常被称为“感同身受者”，这一类人往往更喜欢柔和与能够唤起内心深层情感的音乐。

People who can identify patterns and systems, known as 'systemisers', prefer intense music that forms complex sounds.

能够识别音乐形态和音乐系统的人，被称为“系统识别者”，这一类人喜欢节奏强烈、旋律复杂的音乐。

The theory, he explained, is that empathisers are interested in music's emotional qualities and how it makes them feel, whereas systemisers are more intrigued by its structural qualities.

根据格林伯格的理论，感同身受者常常对音乐中传达的情感特质以及自身产生共鸣的过程感兴趣，而系统识别者则更容易被音乐的结构特质所吸引。

Meanwhile, people who like both mellow music and intense music tend to have similar scores in empathising and systemising tests, indicating a 'balanced' thinking style.

与此同时，既喜欢柔和音乐又喜欢激烈音乐的人，在感同身受和系统识别测试中得分趋同，达到一种“平衡”的思维模式。

This is not the first time psychologists have looked into the way music taste and personality mix.

这并非心理学家第一次在实验中把音乐品味和人格特质组合在一起。

The Short Test Of Musical Preferences (Stomp) is a test that assesses preferences in music genres, and was first introduced in 2003 by scientists in Austin, Texas.

德克萨斯州奥斯汀的科学家团队在2003年就首次引入了音乐偏好快速测试，也是一个根据音乐风格喜好来测试性格特质的科学项目。

The researchers performed analysis similar to Mr Greenberg's and found that people who prefer reflective and complex music like blues, classical and jazz score highly on openness to experience, and see themselves as politically liberal, intelligent and not very athletic.

研究者开展了与格林伯格类似的分析，结果显示，喜欢布鲁斯、古典音乐和爵士乐等深沉复杂音乐的人在经验开放性测试中得分较高，他们认为自己崇尚政治自由、聪明，但不擅长运动。

They found that fans of upbeat music like country, pop and soundtracks, on the other hand, tended to have low scores for openness to experience and intelligence.

研究者还发现，喜欢乡村音乐、流行音乐和电影配乐之类欢快音乐的人，在经验开放性与智力测试中得分较低。

They were more likely to be agreeable, extroverted and conscientious and see themselves as attractive, wealthy, athletic and politically conservative.

这样的人更和蔼、外向、正直，认为自己有魅力、富有、擅长运动，政治上较为保守。

Finally, people who prefer energetic and rhythmic music were also extroverted, agreeable, attractive and athletic, but they did not share the political inclination, wealth or lower intelligence scores as lovers of upbeat music.

最后，喜欢动感和节奏强烈音乐的人也很外向随和，富有魅力而且擅长运动。但是他们的政治倾向和财富多少与偏好欢快音乐的人不一样，智力测试的得分也未必偏低。

Vocabulary

soppy: 多愁善感的

reflective: 沉思的