One might think that with human society considering the concept of democracy, free speech and free will as ideals, that thinking outside of the hive mentality is an admired trait. Well, it is, but actually following one’s own personal tastes is a completely different matter.

According to a recent research regarding the behavioral and preferential patterns that teenagers have according to the type of music that they listen to, there is plenty of influence to be found in the general accepted opinion of the public.

Subjects were asked to rate and select songs that they liked –during which, their brain activities were being monitored. After being able to choose, these same subjects were later informed regarding which songs were popular favorites and which were not. A re-test with the same subjects revealed that upon realizing which songs were popular favorites, many chose to change their selections in order to conform more to the popular opinion.

Many experts believe that this mentality is brought about by the need for people to prevent themselves from being rejected or teased about having a different opinion than what is considered to be the standard or the norm. This practice is also most prevalent among teenagers where peer acceptance is a valuable social luxury to attain.

For the music industry, this goes to show how much song ratings can actually go towards making a track more famous or not. Subjects have shown that upon knowing which songs had ratings of 4 to 5 stars (out of five) would start to lean towards the higher rated songs than their originally selected tracks. Many would exhibit signs of fear and anxiety when listening to tracks that are not popular.

Find out more about the how conformity is changing the way teenagers choose their music at Times Online UK.

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