What does your music taste say about YOU? Take the quiz to see if you're caring and sociable or an obsessive stickler for the rules

• e-mail

Heavy metal fans are often considered antisocial and aggressive, while those who prefer slow love songs might be thought of as soppy, and classical music fans are seen as pretentious.

While many would probably deny these stereotypes hold any weight, the links between music and personality are being seriously investigated by teams of psychologists.

One such expert from Cambridge has now created a quiz to put these theories to the test - and you can take it to find out what your music personality is.

To take the quiz, go to musicaluniverse.org and select the Musical Test.

People who have a well-developed ability to understand thoughts and feelings in themselves and others, so-called 'empathisers', prefer mellow music that evokes deep emotion. People who can identify patterns and systems, known as 'systemisers', prefer intense music that forms complex sounds

David Greenberg, a psychologist at the University of Cambridge, is one of the researchers working on the 'Musical Universe' project.

Mr Greenberg has quizzed thousands of people, first giving them a written test to analyse their personalities and then finding out what types of music they prefer.

'What we've found using large numbers of participants is that our musical behaviours are linked to personality in all types of ways,' Mr Greenberg told MailOnline. 

'For example, we've found that musical preferences are linked to three brain types.'

He said those who have a well-developed ability to understand thoughts and feelings in themselves and others, so-called 'empathisers', prefer mellow music that evokes deep emotion. 

THE FIVE CATEGORIES OF MUSIC AND WHAT THEY SAY ABOUT YOU

Take the test to reveal what categories of music you score highly for then read the descriptions below 

Mellow music is defined as romantic, relaxing, unaggressive, sad, slow, and quiet; often heard in genres of soft rock, R & B, and adult contemporary. 

People who have a well-developed ability to understand thoughts and feelings in themselves and others, so-called 'empathisers', prefer mellow music that evokes deep emotion. 

People who like both mellow music and intense music score similar in empathising and systemising tests, indicating a 'balanced' thinking style

Unpretentious music is defined as uncomplicated, relaxing, unaggressive, soft, and acoustic, and primarily from the country, folk, and singer/songwriter music genres.

Fans of upbeat music like country, pop and soundtracks tend to have low scores for openness to experience and intelligence. 

They are more likely to be agreeable, extroverted and conscientious and see themselves as attractive, wealthy, athletic and politically conservative.

Sophisticated music is defined as inspiring, intelligent, complex, and dynamic, and were from the classical, operatic, avant-garde, world beat, and traditional jazz music genres.

People who prefer reflective and complex music like blues, classical and jazz score highly on openness to experience, and see themselves as politically liberal, intelligent and not very athletic. 

Intense music is defined as distorted, loud, aggressive, and not relaxing, romantic, nor inspiring, and were from the classic rock, punk, heavy metal, and power pop music genres.

People who can identify patterns and systems, known as 'systemisers', prefer intense music that forms complex sounds.  

Contemporary music is defined a percussive, electric, and not sad, and from the rap, electronica, Latin, acid jazz, and Euro pop music genres.

People who prefer energetic and rhythmic music were also extroverted, agreeable, attractive and athletic, but they did not share the political inclination, wealth or lower intelligence scores as lovers of upbeat music.

Source: Musical Universe Project and Short Test Of Musical Preferences

'People who are high on empathy may be preferring a certain type of music compared to people who are more systematic,' Mr Greenberg told CNN. 

People who can identify patterns and systems, known as 'systemisers', prefer intense music that forms complex sounds.

The theory, he explained, is that empathisers are interested in music's emotional qualities and how it makes them feel, whereas systemisers are more intrigued by its structural qualities.

'They are focusing more on the instrumental elements, seeing how the music is mixing together,' Mr Greenberg continued.

Meanwhile, people who like both mellow music and intense music tend to have similar scores in empathising and systemising tests, indicating a 'balanced' thinking style. 

Mr Greenberg and his team found empathisers prefer music that inspires strong feelings, often sadness, such as Joni Mitchell's 'Blue.' These songs tend to feature themes of love, loss, relationships, heartbreak and nostalgia. Joni Mitchell is pictured

This is not the first time psychologists have looked into the way music taste and personality mix.

The Short Test Of Musical Preferences (Stomp) is a test that assesses preferences in music genres, and was first introduced in 2003 by scientists in Austin, Texas.

The researchers performed analysis similar to Mr Greenberg's and found that people who prefer reflective and complex music like blues, classical and jazz score highly on openness to experience, and see themselves as politically liberal, intelligent and not very athletic.

Those who preferred heavy metal and alternative music were similar to jazz-lovers, but more likely to think of themselves as athletic.

They found that fans of upbeat music like country, pop and soundtracks, on the other hand, tended to have low scores for openness to experience and intelligence. 

They were more likely to be agreeable, extroverted and conscientious and see themselves as attractive, wealthy, athletic and politically conservative.

Finally, people who prefer energetic and rhythmic music were also extroverted, agreeable, attractive and athletic, but they did not share the political inclination, wealth or lower intelligence scores as lovers of upbeat music.

Mr Greenberg's team found systemisers prefer music that tends to be more energetic, often eliciting joy or even anger through charged lyrics and intricate patterns of notes, such as 'Welcome to the Jungle' by Guns N' Roses (pictured)

How do your scores compare to the general population? Compare your scores to the categories in the table. The number is not a percentage, it is a bseline score that shows how it compares to the average population

'We are seeking music that reflects who we are, so that includes personality, that includes the way we think, and it may even be the way our brain is wired,' Mr Greenberg continued.

One hypothesis is that listening to mellow music can make us feel sad, so our brain may release a pleasing hormone to soothe us. 

The idea is that empathisers may get a bigger dose, since the region of their brain responsible for regulating the chemical's release is larger.

Systemisers' brains are bigger in regions responsible for recognizing patterns, so when they hear intense or highly structured music they may prefer it for its complexity.

'It's almost like a musical puzzle that they're putting together, Mr Greenberg added, and his team has organise musical taste into five categories. 

WHY ARE MEN LESS EMPATHETIC THAN WOMEN? TESTOSTERONE

The inferior frontal gyrus (located in red) has been shown to play a key role in empathy tasks

Researchers have shown that the presence of the male sex hormone can scramble communication between parts of the brain which process emotions.  

In research published last week, the team found women who had been administered testosterone took longer to identify emotions and made more mistakes than those who hadn't taken the hormone.

Brain scans using functional MRI (fMRI) showed that a single dose of hormone was enough to alter the connections between regions of the brain involved in emotional processing.

The findings show that in healthy women, elevated testosterone can affect how these regions communicate, reducing their ability to empathise with others effectively.

The group also suggest that higher exposure to testosterone in the womb, which could alter the way the regions of brain communicate in people with autism spectrum disorder.

The empathising–systemising theory was first developed by autism researcher Simon Baron-Cohen.

It proposes that on a level below normal personality there are individual differences in the wiring of the brain that result in two different modes a person may process information, empathising and systemising.

Empathisers tend to be good listeners and can put themselves in someone else's shoes.

Systemisers can have an average or even high ability to do this, too. They don't have to lack empathy but their systemising abilities are even greater.

Balanced music lovers tend to prefer songs across the spectrum. 

'We've also found some interesting results beyond musical preferences,' Mr Greenberg told MailOnline. 

'For example, we identified that the personality trait called openness to experience is a predictor of musical ability. This was found to be the case even for non-musicians. 

'This means that there are people all around the world that have never been exposed to a musical instrument, but are primed for musical success because they are high on this trait.'