Musical expertise and personality – differences related to occupational choice and instrument categories

Several studies have documented personality differences between musicians and non-musicians, and there have also been reports of personality differences between musicians playing different instruments. However, the samples have been small and findings are often inconsistent between studies. Here, we investigated Big Five personality differences between professional musicians, amateur musicians, and non-musicians in more than 7000 participants, as well as differences related to instrument categories. We had two specific hypotheses, i.e. that musicians would have higher openness than non-musicians, and that singers would be more extraverted than instrumentalists. Indeed, we found large group differences in openness, with professionals scoring higher than amateurs, who scored higher than non-musicians. Furthermore, singers were, as predicted, higher on extraversion than instrumentalists among both professionals and amateurs. We also found that professionals had higher neuroticism, lower agreeableness, and lower conscientiousness than amateurs. For professionals and amateurs, there were personality differences between instruments, but the patterns were inconsistent. This suggests that the differences were not primarily related to instrument choice per se, but instead possibly moderated by other factors such as musical genre and the social context of music making in each group. •Musicians and non-musicians have different personality profiles.•Professional and amateur musicians showed higher openness than non-musicians.•Professionals have lower agreeableness and conscientiousness than amateur musicians.•Vocalists showed higher extraversion than instrumentalists.