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The type of music you listen to does not just reflect your preferences, but according to researchers it can give insight on how you think. Dr. David Greenberg, who led the study, suggests that not only does our preferences in music predict thinking styles and empathy levels, but the opposite can be done too. That is, cognitive styles and whether or not a person is high in empathy can be a better predictor of music preferences compared to predicting personality.
Although our music interests can vary throughout our lives, there is stability over time. Greenberg and his team reveal that for people who like mellow and unpretentious music are more likely to be empathizers, those who are more people-oriented and more aware of someone else's emotions. On the other hand, people who like more intense music tend to be systemizers, those who tend to have less interest in emotions and focus more on the rules and patters of the world. While empathizers might be psychologists or carers, systemizers might be an engineer or mathematician. However, there is also a grey area in between. If you listen to a mix of music, it reflects that you have a balance of empathizing and systemizing components.
In other words, music is a great reflector of self. It can reveal how a person is emotionally and cognitively. In addition, these results can help other researchers to understand the psychology of individual by and studying the extremes of the empathizing-systemizing. For example, people with autism are strong systemizers.
Source material from PsyBlog