The Big Five Personality Traits and Uses of Music: A Replication in Malaysia Using Structural Equation Modeling

The current study set out to replicate and extend a recent paper (Chamorro-Premuzic & Furnham, 2007) on personality and uses of music using structural equation modeling. Responses to questionnaire data from 227 Malaysian university students showed that, in line with our hypotheses, individuals higher in Neuroticism were more likely to use music for emotional regulation (influencing their mood states), Extraversion positively predicted use of music as background or for distraction, and Openness to Experience predicted cognitive use of music. However, contrary to the target paper, Conscientiousness did not predict use of music for emotional regulation and Extraversion was positively rather than negatively linked with that use of music. Results are discussed in terms of the generalizability of previous findings on the Big Five as determinants of uses of music.