Historical Facebook research · 256 personality profiles

Music and COMPILER Personality Types

Music lists can reveal more than which bands are popular overall. The useful comparison is how frequently a band appears within a personality profile relative to other profiles.

Eight COMPILER dimensions define the type codes. The same weighted factor scores and fixed global cutoffs are applied to every category; only the recorded preference field changes.

139,946 profiles have usable data for this comparison. Type samples range from 22 to 2,616, with a median of 434.

248 of 256 types meet the 70-profile sample minimum. 189 have at least five qualifying distinctive entries; 111 have twenty.

These are historical, unadjusted associations, not individual predictions. A missing mention is not a dislike. Age, gender, geography and list length may contribute to differences.

Distribution of category sample sizes across the 256 personality types

Patterns with substantial differences

These examples require at least 25 mentions in a type of at least 300 profiles, in addition to the common screening rules. They are examples with larger cells, not a claim of independent replication.

Animal Collective

: 3.2% list this entry, compared with 0.5% outside the type. That is 6.24 times the listing rate, a 2.7-percentage-point gap (35 of 1,091 profiles).

MercyMe

: 2.2% list this entry, compared with 0.4% outside the type. That is 5.96 times the listing rate, a 1.8-percentage-point gap (29 of 1,320 profiles).

Joy Division

: 5.3% list this entry, compared with 0.9% outside the type. That is 5.73 times the listing rate, a 4.3-percentage-point gap (26 of 494 profiles).

The displayed rankings cover the existing 695-band/group catalog. Solo artists are not exhaustively covered. Explicit genre counts remain in the underlying aggregate research but are not mixed into these artist/band results.

Explore the 256 profiles

Personality type

Reading the eight letters

COMPILER uses the original proposed pole names below. These are provisional shorthand for broader dimensions, not clean logical opposites, abilities, diagnoses or judgments of worth.

Position	Higher factor score	Lower factor score	Meaning
1	C: Caregiving	A: Autonomy	Prioritizing care for others and family or close relationships.
2	O: Openness	T: Traditionalism	Intellectual, imaginative and artistic exploration.
3	M: Materialism	F: Frugality	Placing importance on appearance, money and expensive consumption, not actual wealth.
4	P: Prudence	S: Spontaneity	Orderliness, caution and deliberate self-control.
5	I: Intimacy	G: Guardedness	Emotional openness, accepting help and interpersonal trust.
6	L: Leadership	Y: Yielding	Wanting to lead or control and being comfortable with confrontation, not leadership skill.
7	E: Equanimity	V: Volatility	Emotional calm and steadiness rather than a strong need for reassurance.
8	R: Religiosity	N: Nonreligiosity	Religious faith and conventional restraint.

In particular, Autonomy does not mean an inability to care; Frugality is broader shorthand here than thrift alone; Leadership includes control/confrontation preferences rather than demonstrated skill.

What the comparison can establish

The catalog contains 695 entries. Distinctive rankings require at least 70 usable profiles in a type, 200 mentions overall, 10 in the type, 50 outside it, and at least three in each deterministic half. Listing-rate lift must be at least 1.25, the absolute gap at least 0.25 percentage points, and the direction positive in both halves.

Lift compares the selected type with everyone outside it in the same usable category cohort. Lists can contain fewer than twenty entries. The split-half rule screens consistency; it is not external validation or a multiple-testing guarantee. Larger ratios based on ten or twelve mentions remain uncertain.

Each person counts at most once per matched entry, but can match several entries. Common whole-field dislike/negation phrases are conservatively screened out of preference fields. Education concentrations are not dislike-screened. The matching catalogs are not exhaustive and may miss languages, aliases or prose descriptions.

The factor model combines 35 original trait scores. Each of its eight global cutoffs splits 253,717 eligible historical profiles into 126,859 higher and 126,858 lower scores. Marginal balance does not guarantee equal-sized combinations. The source spans 2008–2011; it is not a representative sample of current tastes or the general population.

Download aggregate rankings CSV · Aggregate results · Full scoring and matching methods

All 256 sample sizes

Type	Usable profiles	Qualifying entries
	2,616	28
	2,430	245
	2,160	7
	1,579	60
	1,578	176
	1,502	135
	1,480	171
	1,480	49
	1,474	52
	1,447	46
	1,441	98
	1,320	46
	1,305	21
	1,251	27
	1,239	185
	1,234	280
	1,218	159
	1,215	29
	1,213	132
	1,147	18
	1,131	46
	1,125	145
	1,122	25
	1,117	205
	1,114	15
	1,101	86
	1,101	20
	1,094	3
	1,091	222
	1,081	31
	1,046	110
	1,032	6
	1,021	186
	1,006	193
	1,000	112
	982	17
	981	45
	981	67
	979	18
	972	87
	954	55
	952	56
	950	4
	931	119
	925	148
	910	55
	904	59
	904	20
	902	53
	900	47
	857	20
	847	30
	840	59
	832	143
	822	45
	818	4
	815	54
	810	1
	788	57
	780	197
	778	152
	767	43
	749	18
	746	25
	745	16
	726	19
	723	6
	722	53
	718	12
	705	42
	697	146
	694	5
	693	55
	692	109
	688	12
	685	23
	683	130
	680	11
	677	95
	666	26
	657	46
	652	33
	651	38
	644	101
	639	92
	618	29
	614	5
	610	1
	601	87
	584	21
	583	53
	577	18
	572	3
	569	23
	559	50
	542	6
	533	81
	531	20
	525	8
	525	6
	517	83
	504	6
	503	8
	498	3
	498	6
	497	12
	494	70
	490	92
	486	15
	486	18
	482	40
	478	69
	471	19
	468	5
	460	6
	456	13
	454	8
	452	42
	448	84
	447	4
	446	20
	445	49
	443	15
	443	36
	441	72
	436	4
	434	4
	434	10
	433	32
	431	11
	426	90
	422	43
	420	31
	413	71
	412	6
	401	15
	400	3
	395	15
	392	24
	392	7
	392	22
	388	72
	384	8
	383	5
	377	1
	371	17
	366	3
	365	43
	362	4
	361	23
	359	4
	359	16
	358	73
	358	22
	356	3
	351	8
	346	67
	345	62
	341	37
	340	45
	338	40
	335	57
	334	10
	330	19
	328	0
	325	6
	325	8
	323	9
	322	43
	319	2
	311	4
	310	41
	307	29
	301	3
	300	8
	298	18
	296	17
	295	8
	294	5
	290	23
	289	7
	288	3
	286	3
	284	7
	284	0
	284	0
	279	4
	274	12
	273	33
	268	5
	262	11
	261	9
	258	2
	258	1
	256	16
	256	12
	254	15
	248	3
	248	4
	242	10
	241	2
	238	3
	235	14
	230	20
	224	3
	223	6
	218	10
	218	5
	216	12
	212	4
	212	7
	212	12
	211	0
	208	3
	201	0
	195	1
	193	1
	185	16
	183	1
	180	22
	180	18
	172	0
	166	0
	163	15
	150	1
	149	5
	144	7
	140	2
	140	0
	134	0
	134	3
	133	7
	127	9
	126	6
	121	4
	119	1
	115	1
	115	1
	114	1
	114	0
	108	5
	106	3
	97	2
	94	1
	89	0
	88	0
	79	0
	76	1
	69	0
	63	0
	61	0
	59	0
	56	0
	48	0
	30	0
	22	0

Find out your COMPILER type

Explore your profile with the experimental 63-item assessment: 56 new items and seven MOTIVES comparison items.

Take the COMPILER Short Test

Version 0.1. New-questionnaire scores are provisional and are not calibrated to the historical Facebook cutoffs.