A List Of Things Thrown Five Minutes Ago

YOU ARE WHAT YOU LIKE: According to a study to be published in the journal Psychological Science, people use musical taste as a means to determine other people's personalities and to reveal their own.

Among various other tests, the researchers had a group of students compile a list of their ten favorite CDs. After listening to the compilations, the judges (also students) evaluated those who chose the CDs using standard personality profiles. The ratings turned out to be amazingly accurate. As an artcile that orginally appeared in the NYT summarizes:

The top 10 lists were particularly good in revealing the authors’ taste for variety, intellectual appetite for abstract ideas and willingness to experiment with alternative points of view, a quality psychologists call openness. And a high volume of lyrics in a person’s list seemed to roughly reflect sociability, or extroversion, Rentfrow said.

The top 10 lists revealed little, however, about people’s levels of conscientiousness — how neat, responsible and organized they were. "This makes some sense," Rentfrow said. "You can tell more about these kinds of qualities by looking at a picture."

Nick Hornby would approve. For a brief analysis of what your own taste for certain artists means, check out this.

So ... here is my list (in alphabetical order by artist):

Gordon -- Barenaked Ladies
The Pretender -- Jackson Browne
London Calling -- The Clash
Can You Dig It? -- Compilation (of funk and soul songs from the 1970's)
88 Basie Street -- Count Basie
Blood on the Tracks -- Bob Dylan
Amplified Heart -- Everything But the Girl
The Man from Ipanema -- Antonio Carlos Jobim
Hejira -- Joni Mitchell
Songs in the Key of Life -- Stevie Wonder

Feel free to analyze what that list says. Or post your own list and let us analyze it.