Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts, Vol 19(6), Dec 2025, 1301-1310; doi:10.1037/aca0000612
We asked whether adults have accurate self-awareness of their musical ability, and whether such self-awareness relates to other individual differences. Participants (N = 256) rated how musical they were compared to their friends, colleagues, family, and the general population. They subsequently completed self-report measures of musical behaviors (Goldsmiths Musical Sophistication Index [Gold-MSI]) and personality, as well as objective tests of cognitive (matrix reasoning problems) and musical (Musical Ear Test [MET]) abilities. Participants considered themselves to be more musical than their colleagues and family but not than their friends and the general population. Correlations with Gold-MSI scores provided evidence for the construct and content validity of the self-ratings. Musicality self-ratings were associated with better performance on the Melody (but not the rhythm) subtest of the MET, higher levels of openness-to-experience and extraversion, and gender: men rated themselves as particularly musical even though there were no gender differences in objective musical ability. Cognitive ability was not associated with self-ratings although it predicted MET scores and the accuracy of self-ratings. In short, individuals exhibited self-awareness for pitch-based aspects of their musical ability. Their evaluations were associated with their personalities and tended to be exaggerated, however, particularly for men and for participants with lower cognitive ability. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved)