BACKGROUND: Strong correlations have been shown between music and personality traits, here we aim to investigate how personality traits shape the appreciation of dance when this is presented with three different music/sounds.
METHODS: Therefore, we investigated the relationship between personality traits and the subjective esthetic experience of 52 spectators watching a contemporary dance performance.
RESULTS: Spectators rated the experience of watching dance without music significantly different from with music. The higher spectators scored on the Big Five personality factor openness, the more they liked the no-music section. Spectators' physical experience with dance was not linked to their appreciation but was significantly related to high average extravert scores. Spectators who scored high on the openness personality trait enjoy the excitement of hearing dancers breathing without music.
CONCLUSION: For the first time, we showed that spectators' reported entrainment to watching dance movements without music is strongly related to their personality and thus may need to be considered when using dance as a means to investigate action observation processes and esthetic preferences.
Front Hum Neurosci. 2014;8:718
