Cold, Hard Science: Smart People Like Metal
Study data on "attractiveness of metal fans" withheld
In your face, classical! Get bent, “intelligent dance music”! In a survey of over a thousand gifted and talented teenagers conducted by British psychologist Stuart Cadwallader, a third of those surveyed listed heavy metal as one of their favorite genres of music.
Honorary metal bro Cadwallader presented his findings to a conference of the British Psychological Society this week. “There is a perception of gifted and talented students as being into classical music and spending a lot of time reading,” Cadwallader reported. “I think that is an inaccurate stereotype. There is literature that links heavy metal to poor academic performance and delinquency but we found a group that contradicts that. They feel more stressed out and turn to heavy metal as a way of relieving that stress. Participants said they appreciated the complex and sometimes political themes of heavy metal music more than perhaps the average pop song. It has a tendency to worry adults a bit but I think it is just a cathartic thing. It does not indicate problems.”
