Every day, we make choices based on our preferences: should we buy the black cotton shirt or the red silk one? Should we eat the creamy pasta or the spicy noodles? But how do we decide what we like?
Spoilt for choice: The first factor determining what we like is the immediate pleasure that we get from an experience, says Professor Thompson.
Professor of Psychology Bill Thompson says research on liking has often focused on the immediate pleasure an experience brings, but much more is going on.
Thompson recently published a paper on music appreciation in the leading journal Psychological Review, in which he and his co-authors Nicolas Bullot and Lisa Margulis describe three factors that determine what we like about music, and probably apply more broadly to anything we like.
The first factor is the immediate pleasure that we get from an experience.
Multiple cognitive mechanisms influence whether we like or dislike a piece of music, a piece of clothing, or a type of food.
We can appreciate music purely on the level of how it sounds, just as the food we like gives us enjoyable taste sensations, and the people we like make us laugh or feel good about ourselves.
The second factor, called the self, refers to the fact that we like things that support our identity.
“Music, like our clothing, is an extension of our identity, and we appreciate things that reinforce that,” Thompson says.
“Most of us remember and like songs from our teens, when we established our sense of identity. It triggers a range of self-defining memories and associations, or the clothing we wear communicates something about us.
“Experiences that affirm our identity are empowering.”
Like the madeleine cakes in Proust’s In Search of Lost Time, a single bite of a dish or the opening bars of a song can throw us back to the time when we first experienced it.
For this reason, music is a powerful tool in reminiscence therapies for people with dementia. It can trigger memories that allow patients to recapture their sense of self.
Admiring the maker
The third factor is our understanding of the sources of an experience.
A matter of taste: For an outsider, it can sound disturbing, but fans find extreme metal a refreshing change, says Professor Thompson.
“We appreciate the sound of the music we enjoy, but also the musicians who created it,” Thompson says.
“We may admire them for their values, outlook on life, and musical skill, and this fuels our enjoyment.
“Clothing brands draw heavily on source appreciation. Designers such as Gucci, Versace, Ferragamo and Calvin Klein are successful because customers care about who designed their clothing.
“Research shows that source appreciation plays an important role in what we like. One study found children liked a painting more when told that it was a piece of abstract art than if it was created when a can of paint was knocked over.
Fans find extreme metal a refreshing change from conventional radio tunes, which they often find boring.
“In the same way, we would enjoy pasta more if we were told it was made from wheat rather than worms. It matters to us whether a musician is singing or lip syncing, and whether they composed a song or plagiarised it.
“So, when we say we ‘like’ something, we are talking about more than just the pleasure we experience in the moment. Multiple cognitive mechanisms influence whether we like or dislike a piece of music, a piece of clothing, or a type of food.”
Thompson and his colleagues have studied fans of thrash and death metal, a style that some find confronting.
“Death and thrash metal is rapid, with unconventional guitar riffs, and low, growling voices,” he says.
“For an outsider, it can sound disturbing, but fans find extreme metal a refreshing change from conventional radio tunes, which they often find boring.”
Research from Professor Thompson’s lab has shown that fans of extreme metal have a unique perspective on this music, and they draw on all three aspects of appreciation.
“The musical sounds are energising and empowering and this brings them pleasure,” he says.
“Fans also define themselves as part of a metal community, and may appreciate the innovative compositional goals, and social messages of the music.”
Changing tastes
Can preferences change over time? Thompson believes so, precisely because they are not only about transient pleasure.
“Our musical likes and dislikes are not set in stone, and can change when we learn about the circumstances and people that gave rise to the music.
“Songs like Baby it’s cold outside or Ted Nugent’s Jailbait were popular decades ago, but with greater awareness of misogyny and sexual assault, it is difficult to brush aside the troubling content of the lyrics.
“For many of us, the social and political contexts of a song matter.
“So the next time we say, ‘I like that’, we might think about the reasons: whether it brings immediate pleasure, has personal significance, was created by interesting people under certain social conditions, or all three.”
Bill Thompson is a Distinguished Professor of the Department of Psychology, and Director of the Music, Sound and Performance Lab at Macquarie University
