title: Conscientiousness and Extraversion relate to responsiveness to tempo in dance.
abstract: Previous research has shown broad relationships between personality and dance, but the relationship between personality and specific structural features of music has not been explored. The current study explores the influence of personality and trait empathy on dancers' responsiveness to small tempo differences between otherwise musically identical stimuli, measured by difference in the amount in acceleration of key joints. Thirty participants were recorded using motion capture while dancing to excerpts from six popular songs that were time-stretched to be slightly faster or slower than their original tempi. Analysis revealed that higher conscientiousness and lower extraversion both correlated with greater responsiveness to tempo change. Partial correlation analysis revealed that conscientiousness remained significantly correlated with responsiveness when extraversion was controlled, but not vice versa. No effect of empathy was found. Implications are discussed.
authors.affiliation: Center for Interdisciplinary Music Research, University of Jyväskylä, Department of Music, P.O. Box 35, FI-40014, Finland. Electronic address: emily.j.carlson@jyu.fi.
authors.forename: Emily
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Carlson
authors.affiliation: Center for Interdisciplinary Music Research, University of Jyväskylä, Department of Music, P.O. Box 35, FI-40014, Finland.
authors.forename: Birgitta
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Burger
authors.affiliation: Department of Music, Carleton College, Northfield, MN 55057, USA.
authors.forename: Justin
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: London
authors.affiliation: Center for Interdisciplinary Music Research, University of Jyväskylä, Department of Music, P.O. Box 35, FI-40014, Finland.
authors.forename: Marc R
authors.initials: MR
authors.lastname: Thompson
authors.affiliation: Center for Interdisciplinary Music Research, University of Jyväskylä, Department of Music, P.O. Box 35, FI-40014, Finland.
authors.forename: Petri
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Toiviainen
mesh_terms: D000054:Acceleration; D000328:Adult; D001288:Attention; D003242:Conscience; D003615:Dancing / Q000523:psychology*; D004645:Empathy; D005120:Extraversion, Psychological; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007206:Individuality; D007439:Introversion, Psychological; D008297:Male; D009146:Music; D013998:Time Perception
keywords: Acceleration; Dance; Motion capture; Music; Personality; Tempo responsiveness