Do Young People Misjudge Each Others' Musical Taste?

Abstract

Finnish upper level primary school pupils preference for different kinds of music ware compared with their estimates of their peers preference for the same kinds of mUsic. The results indicate fairly consistent trends of overestimating the peers preference for music of the tough, wild, protesting, loud and rock-oriented kind, and of underestimating their preference for classical music and music of a more "quiet kind. The tendency to overestimate others preference for the former kinds of music was more pronounced when judging the taste of a larger and more nroryros peer group, than when judging the taste' of one's own classmates. The teenagers false beliefs about each others musical taste may have SOme non-desirable consequences, and it could be seen as a task for the school to prevent and correct the misconceptions.