Who do you share your iPod playlist with?
Your lover? Your lover's husband? Your colleagues at the office? The strangely smelling man who sits next to you on the bus?
Well, researchers at the University of Cambridge have a message for you. It reads: "Don't."
According to these flatland boffins, your values, your personality, even your ethnicity, and social class (well, it is England, after all) will be judged by what you slip onto your iPod.
Jason Rentfrow, the chap who dreamed up this vital and surprising study at the university's Department of Social and Developmental Psychology, declared to the Telegraph that letting others sneak a peek at your Blondie and Mahler may "reinforce stereotypes and, potentially social prejudices."
He added: "This research suggests that, even though our assumptions may not be accurate, we get a very strong impression about someone when we ask them what music they like."
You will, I know, both fear and adore some of Rentfrow's conclusions. Those who have a predilection for jazz are, supposedly, liberal, friendly, and sociable. Well, of course. That's what pleasantly discordant music has always said about anyone. READ FULL STORY
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