People enjoy music for many reasons—like to relax, feel emotions, or connect with others. But not everyone enjoys music the same way, and scientists don’t fully understand why. In this study, researchers looked at how much genetics (our inherited traits) influence how people respond to music.
They used data from over 9,000 Swedish twins to measure how sensitive people are to musical pleasure, their ability to hear and understand music, and their general interest in rewards. They found that up to 54% of the differences in how much people enjoy music can be explained by genetics. Most of these genetic influences were separate from a person’s ability to perceive music or their general sensitivity to rewards.
They also found that different parts of music enjoyment are affected by different combinations of genetics and environment, showing that there isn’t just one single reason why people enjoy music differently. Instead, there are multiple, partly independent pathways that shape how we experience music.
Publication
Giacomo Bignardi, Laura W. Wesseldijk, Ernest Mas-Herrero, Robert J. Zatorre, Fredrik Ullén, Simon E. Fisher & Miriam A. Mosing. Twin modelling reveals partly distinct genetic pathways to music enjoyment. Nature Communications volume 16, Article number: 2904 (2025)