People used to think of marijuana as the demon weed, and that smoking it could lead to promiscuity, harder drugs, and even madness.Research by University of Leicester psychologist Dr Adrian North may reveal an even harsher truth: that marijuana leads to Mahler.

Actually, North’s work reveals a correlation between marijuana use and classical music fans, rather than a cause and effect relationship.
The research shows that a person’s musical preference tells a great deal about their lifestyle and interests. When it comes to relationships, beliefs and even breaking the law, fans of different musical styles gave very different responses.

Dr. North is expanding his research and is looking for input from music fans. North looking for 10,000 people from all over the world to take part in an online survey at www.musicaltastetest.com, stating their preference from over 50 musical styles and completing a questionnaire.

The survey, funded by the British Academy, will help Dr North and his team determine to what extent people’s musical tastes can be predicted on the basis of basic demographic information, such as age, sex and earnings.

Hip hop and dance music fans were likely to have tried a range of illegal drugs. However, about a quarter of the classical music and opera fans admitted to having tried cannabis, and 12.3% of opera fans had tried magic mushrooms.

North has also found that music fans are separated along the lines of socio-economic status. Fans of classical music and opera had lifestyles indicative of the middle and upper classes. They had an average annual income of £35,000 before tax, whereas dance music fans earned only £23,311. Classical music and opera fans also paid a much higher proportion of their credit card bills each month than fans of dance music (75% and 49% respectively).

via Axehole