Book and music preferences of the brainless
Does reading books from certain authors or listening to certain music artists make you dumber?
Fans of Lil' Wayne and other rap artists might want to rethink their musical choices. According to a recent study, hip-hop fans tend to be less intelligent than fans of other genres.
The findings come from an innovative research method using aggregated Facebook data. Virgil Griffith, a 25-year-old California Institute of Technology graduate student, compared the average SAT scores at various colleges with students' musical and literary preferences.
Griffith found that the favorite musician of the smartest students was Beethoven, with an average SAT score of 1371. Other popular artists on this end of the scale were Counting Crows (1247), Radiohead (1220), and Ben Folds (1218). Lil' Wayne (889), T.I. (926), and Beyoncé (932), were on the opposite end of the scale.
Popular books among smarter students included Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov (1317), 100 Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez (1308), and Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky. Those on the lower end of the scale preferred books by erotica author Zane (826), The Color Purple by Alice Walker (865), and Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury (893). Interestingly, students who called it The Bible (1047), scored better than those who called it The Holy Bible (909).
Click here for the full report on book preferences of the brilliant (and the brainless). Click here for music preferences.
