Handset maker looks at the age old nature or nurture debate around musical tastes
A study by Nokia into the musical tastes of nearly 4,000 twins has revealed genetic influences on the music people like varies with genre.
There isn't a mobile content angle here (unless Nokia has developed a new music recommendation engine that taps into the gene pool), but what the hey.
In short, Nokia says nature's influence is strong among people who listen to pop, classical and hip-hop (i.e. they were born to), while fans of folk and country are more likely to have been brought up in that environment.
The study, conducted by Nokia and Kings' College London Department of Twin Research, investigated the listening habits of nearly 4,000 twins and looked at the influence of both genetic and environmental factors on musical taste.
Genetic influences decrease over time as individual experiences become more important. Excluding country music - on average for the under 50s, genes have more influence (55 per cent) than environmental factors (45 per cent) , whereas for the over 50s, the influence of individual specific environmental factors on a music collection increases to 60 per cent.
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Adrian North, Professor of Psychology at Heriot Watt University, said: "Previous studies have shown that perfect pitch ability appears to be partly inherent and with as much as 50 per cent of our musical taste being predetermined, it appears there is a strong argument for the existence of 'music genes."
A video to accompany the study, including video, can be seen here.
