New research published in journal music psychology This suggests that people often have negative opinions of individuals simply because they listen to rap music. The findings show that reading violent or sexually explicit rap lyrics causes observers to view hypothetical fans of that music as more sexually aggressive and more likely to commit murder. This provides evidence that the negative stereotypes associated with rap music extend beyond the artists who create it and influence the perceptions of everyday fans.
Rap and hip-hop are among the most popular music genres in the world today, with millions of people streaming these songs every day. At the same time, this genre tends to be associated with controversial themes. Some songs make frequent references to violence, drug use, and the objectification of women.
Past research has shown that these stereotypes can have serious consequences in the real world, particularly in the justice system. In criminal trials, prosecutors may use a defendant’s own rap lyrics as evidence of the defendant’s bad character or violent tendencies, or as a confession. Research has shown that mock jurors judge people more harshly when they are exposed to the lyricist’s rap lyrics. Mock jurors are people who participate in mock trials that help researchers understand how real jurors make decisions.
“We were fascinated by the continued inclusion of rap lyrics as evidence in criminal trials, a practice that does not generally apply to other music genres or art forms,” said study author Kyla Patter, a PhD candidate and senior research fellow at Australia’s James Cook University. “Despite the genre’s immense popularity, there remain concerns that rap music promotes misogyny, violence, and crime.”
Scientists wanted to know whether these negative assumptions applied to people who simply listen to music rather than write it. A person’s musical taste is common social information, and people often use it to make instant judgments about a person’s personality. The researchers also wanted to investigate whether the specific labels of music genres or the actual content of the lyrics trigger these personality judgments.
To test their idea, the researchers conducted two separate online experiments. The first study recruited 300 adults living in the United States and Australia. Participants read a short biography of a fictitious 18-year-old African American high school student. The student is described as an athlete with an excellent academic record and who was planning to attend college on a scholarship.
The researchers randomly assigned participants to read slightly different versions of this explanation. Some versions included a statement that the student was accused of murdering his ex-girlfriend, while others did not. Some versions included a series of violent and sexually explicit lyrics from the students’ favorite rap songs, while others omitted the lyrics entirely. Finally, students were presented as either male or female.
After reading the instructions, participants rated the students on scales measuring various personality traits. Specifically, they were asked how likely they were to commit murder and how sexually aggressive they thought the student was. Participants also answered an open-ended question asking for the main information they considered when making their assessment. Finally, they completed a questionnaire about their own personal attitudes toward rap music.
The researchers found that the presence of rap lyrics significantly influenced participants’ opinions. If the description included rap lyrics, participants rated the fan as more likely to be murderous and sexually aggressive. These negative ratings did not vary by fan gender, as male and female fans were judged equally harshly when lyrics were present.
“While we may no longer see the moral panics associated with rap music that we have seen in previous decades, the negative stereotypes associated with the genre are still prevalent, and that extends to fans of rap as well,” Putter told SciPost.
Written responses revealed that participants consciously used lyrics to judge students. In situations where students were accused of both murder and rap lyrics, many participants focused more on the lyrics of the song than on the actual murder charges. This suggests that simply liking controversial songs was seen as a major character flaw.
“Perhaps most surprising is that in Study 1, when participants were asked to provide personality ratings of hypothetical fans of rap music, they reported giving more weight to the presented rap lyrics than to accusations of murder,” Putter said. “In other words, when making judgments about a fictional character, a rap lyric said to be from that character’s favorite song appears to be more important than an accusation of murder.”
The authors then conducted a second experiment to see whether specific genre labels were responsible for these judgments, or whether the words themselves were responsible. For this study, they recruited 504 adults from the United States and Australia. They used the same basic description of an 18-year-old male student and the same set of violent lyrics used in the first experiment.
This time, they changed the criminal charges to include murder, domestic violence charges, or no crime at all. The music genre labels attached to the lyrics have also changed. Depending on the criteria, the exact same lyrics may be described as coming from rap, heavy metal, electronic dance music, or pop songs, or the genre may not be mentioned at all.
The researchers chose these specific genres because heavy metal and electronic dance music are also often considered problem music. Heavy metal is sometimes associated with physical aggression, while electronic dance music is often associated with recreational drug use. Pop music, on the other hand, is generally considered harmless and is not usually associated with criminal activity.
The scientists predicted that classifying lyrics as rap would lead to harsher judgments than classifying them as pop or electronic dance music. Surprisingly, the assigned genre label had no significant effect on the degree to which fans were perceived as murderous or sexually aggressive. As in the first experiment, participants’ own attitudes toward rap were the strongest predictor of ratings. People with positive views of rap considered fans to be less dangerous.
To understand why genre classification had little effect, the researchers looked at how participants naturally categorized songs. The results showed that over 80% of participants correctly identified the lyrics as rap music, regardless of the label given. This suggests that the lyrical content itself was highly recognizable, thus triggering rap-related stereotypes even when participants were explicitly told that the song belonged to the pop or heavy metal genre.
“Importantly, participants’ perceptions of rap music influenced how they evaluated the hypothetical person,” Putter noted. “In other words, people with more positive views of rap are less likely to make negative personality judgments. This finding highlights the importance of educating people about the historical influences and artistic conventions associated with rap music to challenge assumptions about the inflammatory and autobiographical nature of rap lyrics.”
The authors note that there are some limitations to consider. “While our findings can be understood in the context of the potential negative impact of rap-related stereotypes when introducing rap lyrics as evidence in criminal trials, our experiment was not conducted in a mock trial setting,” Putter said.
Additionally, the lyrics used in the experiment are extremely violent and misogynistic, and are not representative of all styles of hip-hop. Many rap songs feature positive messages, and different lyrical styles do not result in the same negative character judgments.
Another limitation is that the fictional fans are specifically represented as African American high school students. Previous research has linked rap stereotypes to broader racial bias, so changing the race of the fans may have different results. Most participants in these two experiments identified as white, which may also influence how cultural aspects of the music are interpreted.
In the future, scientists will be able to study how people react when they listen to music, rather than just reading lyrics written on a screen. Listeners often focus on the beat and melody of a song rather than the exact lyrics, often mishearing or misinterpreting the lyrics being sung. Researchers can also conduct these experiments in a mock courtroom environment to see exactly how these biases affect real-world legal decisions.
“It would be interesting to conduct an experiment that examines rap-related stereotypes in the Australian context, for example those associated with drill rap groups (such as One Four) and their fans,” Pater added.
The study, “Personality Judgments of Rap Music Fans,” was authored by Kaila C. Putter, Dan J. Miller, Amy Belfi, James Rees, and Amanda E. Krause.
