Maladaptive personality and psychopathy dimensions as predictors of music and movie preferences in US adults

We link modern conceptualizations of maladaptive personality and psychopathy dimensions to music and movie genre preferences. Participants, N = 379, completed the Personality Inventory (5th ed.; PID-5), Triarchic Psychopathy Measure (TriPM), and music and movie preferences questionnaires. The structure of some, but not all, music preferences factors aligned with previous reports. Overall, maladaptive traits had meaningful, albeit modest links to entertainment media preferences, but not to the kinds of intense or rebellious music genres sometimes labeled as “problem” entertainment in prior literature. Support emerged for several a priori hypotheses, but some predictions based on the three- and five-factor normal personality trait and entertainment preferences literature did not generalize to a five-factor formulation of maladaptive personality. We discuss the findings’ implications and several likely sources of inconsistencies in the literature on music and movie preferences and personality.