Electoral Chairs’ Seminars – 2 February

Striking a Political Chord: The Effect of Musical Preferences on Voting Intentions in Canada

Catherine Ouellet (University of Toronto)
Nadjim Fréchet (Université de Montréal)
Yannick Dufresne (Université de Laval)

Music is arguably one of the most meaningful and widespread forms of communication. There is also extensive evidence that musical taste is often revealing of values, personality traits, and lifestyle-related attributes. Drawing on a unique dataset (n=7,229) collected during the 2021 Canadian federal election, this paper investigates the extent to which fans of different music genres might differentiate in their political attitudes. We find that age, gender, immigration status and income explain some of the variations in terms of musical styles. Significant correlations also emerge between music preferences and vote intentions, where Conservatives particularly stand out from other groups. These findings suggest that music preferences encompass a wide range of information and are therefore worthy of scientific attention by social scientists. More generally, this analysis contributes to the emerging research on the relationships between lifestyle, or non-political characteristics, and political behavior.

Contact Semih Çakır if you would like to participate in the seminar.

This content has been updated on 26 January 2022 at 8 h 56 min.