Sounds Like Me, Personality & The Science

How would you describe Sounds Like Me?

Sounds Like Me is a fun and engaging personality profiling platform which uses an individual’s reaction to music to accurately produce predictive profiles

Sounds Like Me (SLM) offers the most accurate personality profile and predictive insights into an individual’s personality, habits and behaviours. This is all done by an individual’s reaction to music. It has no language or culture barriers, cannot be gamed and negates privacy issues.

Why should your business care about Sounds Like Me?

Personality is the fundamental driver of an individual’s habits, behaviours, attitudes and motivations. These influence each and every aspect of our daily lives from the completely mundane (e.g., walking pace, social media habits, food preferences) through to major life decisions and events (e.g., life expectancy, choice of a romantic partner, career aspirations). By understanding an individual’s personality and how best to communicate with them as an individual, you can understand how your business can best serve them, and how the same product or service can fulfil radically different functions for different people from the same demographic group.

The example below demonstrates why personality data is important in deciphering individual differences. This is based on a case study of basic demographic data. Whilst the individuals below fit the same demographic they are radically different as people with completely different lifestyles. We can even discern the personality traits and predict individual insights with identical twins - as you will discover later on.

Why is SLM different from other forms of personality profiling?

SLM offers a unique experience on a number of levels. The Sounds Like Me audio survey uses music to assess personality - alongside the most powerful measurement of personality - The Big Five aka OCEAN. This is a non-intrusive, highly detailed, evidence-based, fun tool that works across language barriers. Also significantly - it cannot be gamed. SLM respects a user's privacy, requesting no other forms of information. We inherently value and uphold the use of our scientific methodology to create powerful, predictive results.

What is OCEAN and why do you use it over other personality measures?

OCEAN (also referred to as The Big Five) , is the most widely researched, evidence-backed and credible model for assessing personality, with over 50,000 academic papers published to date and counting. The OCEAN model also has universal application and is not restricted to specific countries.

It divides personality into five independent dimensions, and each person has a score on each dimension. The dimensions are Openness, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness, and Neuroticism. (OCEAN for short)

Openness refers to the individual’s willingness to seek out and explore new experiences. Conscientiousness relates to the value placed on hard work, duty, and efficiency versus carelessness and living in the moment. Extraversion relates to the tendency to be energetic and sociable versus reserved. Agreeableness relates to the value placed on being compassionate versus rational. Neuroticism relates the extent to which the individual is confident and at ease versus nervous and highly reactive to their immediate environment.

Comparing the Big 5/OCEAN to other personality tests:
The Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) has been accused of containing sexist and racist questions, and different ethnics groups consistently produce different scores. It is only considered reliable in populations of white middle class people. It is not free to use and can only be administered and scored by qualified psychologists.
The Sixteen Personality Factor Questionnaire (16PF) takes between 30 and 50 minutes to complete. Results correspond closely to Big 5 results but the Big 5 is much quicker and easier to administer and score.
The Comrey Personality Scales (CPS) are designed to assess personality in educational and workplace settings. They are best used in career assessments and as such do not have a wide utility.
The Myers–Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) has several psychometric problems, and has poor predictive value. The MBTI was developed in the 1940s based on the untested theories of Carl Jung, and it is now widely disregarded by the academic psychology community.
The Eysenck Personality Questionnaire (EPQ) is based on neurobiological principles and covers three factors, the “super three”, namely extraversion, psychoticism and neuroticism. The EPQ has a good deal of evidential support but the Big 5 is considered by the academic and psychological community to be more robust and a more complete assessment of personality.
The Big 5 constructs are identified consistently via interviews, self-descriptions, surveys and observations. Importantly, the Big 5 structure is found consistently across a broad range of ages, social classes and cultures.

Does your personality change over time?

No, your personality traits are stable over time; these are long-term characteristics which result in individuals behaving in specific ways. The combination of various traits form a personality that is unique to each individual.

The context of an individual can only have a temporary influence on their state or mood. Personality traits are enduring patterns of behaviour that last a lifetime.

Are the results credible from a scientific perspective?

Yes – the entire process is evidence-based and designed with the particular assistance and skill of our academic team. The methodology for each audio survey is developed by Professor Adrian North, Dean of Learning & Teaching at Curtin University, and is the culmination of 20+ years of research and over 100 peer-reviewed papers. Professor North’s lifelong commitment to this research area has seen him become the most widely recognised and leading expert in his field.

The Audio Survey

How accurate is the assessment in comparison to a normal questionnaire?

The problem with typical surveys is that they can be subject to bias; results can be skewed and gamed depending on how an individual would like to be perceived, in comparison to who they truly are. Competitor measures of personality have very significant drawbacks that can only be addressed by using music to measure personality. SLM overcomes all of the drawbacks of conventional measures of personality profiling.

SLM uses localised, culture-by-culture mapping of music onto personality. Music is understood by all people within a given culture - it is universal. SLM assesses the ‘real you’ by assessing personality without social distortions.

Not only is the process of using SLM more reliable, the fact that we use the Big Five/OCEAN sets us apart from the rest.

How long does it take to do the quiz (i.e do you need to listen to the full tracks)?

Approximately 15 minutes in total. When we ask for an initial reaction to a piece of music, we suggest users to listen to around 10-15 seconds of each track before responding. You may find responding within around 3-5 seconds for one or two tracks is enough, however as we all know, tracks can evolve at a different pace - so we recommend you give each piece of music a chance. We are constantly reviewing time measures of the test and will be able to notify users if we think they may be skipping too many too quickly.

Can I repeat the audio survey?

Yes - in particular scenarios where it might prove useful to retake a particular trait, users will be able to retake aspects of the survey. We would encourage users to share their profile with friends and family beforehand - and ask them if it does sound like them, as you may be surprised and find out who you truly are.

What kind of personality insights are included in profiles?

At present the SLM offers plenty of insights to your personality - we call these our dictionaries. They describe how personality correlates with approximately 100 variables reflecting a wide range of attitudes and behaviours; these dictionaries have over 500,000 words of content. Personality insights are predictions across areas such as finance, relationships, health and well-being, online behaviour and many more!

We are always improving and adding to our content. These extensive insights will further benefit from our development progression to fine-tune our detailed genre analysis.
New variables are continuously being added to our SLM dictionaries.

I don’t agree with the assessment. Can you explain to me why it differs so much from the assessment I received via my employer?

Personality assessments undertaken at work tend to use the outdated and unscientific model of Myers-Brigg Assessment. There is no sufficient evidence to support this model of personality assessment and nowadays it is very much disregarded by psychologists. It’s not a reliable use of assessment for personality and is particularly ineffective at helping to find career success for individuals.

Predictive Behaviour

How can I apply my results to my clients?

We have the ability to create meticulously personalised and predictive profiles of individuals across a wide range of data points: personality, demographics, socio-cultural values and across all multimedia. Personalisation is the key to unlocking the enormous potential of predictive analytics.

With even small amounts of data, we can create a bigger, more insightful picture of the individual thus making compelling predictions and evidence-based profiles. These results can be applied to enhance and improve any scenario which individuals are involved in.

We can create multimedia predictions across all genres and across any culture. These can include genres in any medium such as web pages, apps, movies, social media, music, magazines, television, podcasts, radio etc. We can provide predictions for individuals across brands, products, services, marketing, advertising, messaging, tone of voice, recommendations, in-store/online retail and more.

The application of SLM can transform the use of demographic data. Take a look at the differing profiles of these identical twins - who demographically would normally have been treated exactly the same

Are the results quantifiable?

Yes. Every insight is not only tailored for the individual, they are all scored and indicate the strength of the prediction that can be applied to the individual. Our system is able to make weighted probability predictions across a vast, potentially limitless area of possible actions and reactions. As an example – if a person can think or feel it, the system can predict an outcome.

Can the results be segmented?

We prefer to deal with people as individuals - as this is the only way that true, unique personalisation can be achieved.

Big data produces a market segmentation and an approximation of the individual consumer. However, commercial decisions are made by individuals rather than populations and each person has their own unique pattern of motivations and needs.

For example what makes a person a good or a bad credit risk is not whether he shares demographic and income characteristics with other people, but rather whether or not they themselves have a particular personality trait that means they are likely to repay the loan.

Any business that has a good understanding of the personality of its customers also understands what motivates them and can predict specific aspects of their attitudes and behaviours into the future. Our idea of segmentation brings together like minded individuals and communities, rather than approximate based on aggregation.

Can I translate the results into actions?

Yes – our Brands/Products/Services outputs deliver instructional assessments for all probability dictionaries, alongside guidance for business products, physical retail sites, websites and venues. We map data on personality and sociocultural values onto thousands of other variables that have been shown to correlate with them and provide concrete recommendations for action on this basis.

The variables cover a wide range of domains including, but not limited to, internet and technology usage, media usage, workplace productivity, careers, personal finance, lifestyle, the self (e.g., lying, trust), interpersonal relationships, physical and mental health, and political and social values. Our prediction capabilities deliver solid action points for each individual.

Can I reduce marketing cost and how?

Yes you can! Personalisation is the key to unlocking the enormous potential of predictive analytics and the search for ‘true personalisation’ within marketing. Our research has found that the cost of customer acquisition using Sounds Like Me is far below typical industry standards.

Sounds Like Me outputs can inform businesses of their customer's desires and represent for the very first time a solid foundation for the creation of a personalised programmatic marketing engine.

Predictive analytics and AI are massive growth sectors and probably impact sales and marketing more than most. The abilities of Sounds Like Me are an ideal foundation for a programmatic marketing engine rather than ineffectively spending money on the blunt instrument of a programmatic advertising engine that merely pushes the same advert to anyone who has expressed an interest in an item or service.

Traditional consumer insight methods (e.g., segmentation) require a large number of data points per user, but with SLM, we require only a small number that we can gather very quickly and efficiently through automated processes. We are not just quicker but also better - because we measure only those data points that are shown by research to be predictive of attitudes and behaviours.

Can I extract emotional content from the output results?

Yes – OCEAN results relate to emotional and value-driven motivations. For example, variations in levels of Neuroticism can provide concrete guidance on the best way of engaging emotionally with consumers, such as conveying a sense of calm, and level-headed reassurance.

How long does it take to enter a new market (e.g., a new country)?

It takes an average of 4 weeks to develop an entry into a new country.

Why is making predictions across all media important?

We have the ability to hyper-personalise recommendations and provide predictions with great accuracy; meaning that the problematic nature of old data being used for recommendations which are not useful is solved by Sounds Like Me.

Personalisation is the key to unlocking the enormous potential of predictive analytics. Global Data and the search for ‘true personalisation’ within business, marketing, communications and life in general, is something of a quest to find the Holy Grail.

Right now, companies aren’t making enough use of behavioural data. More so, data mining and historical data are not credible alone – and in fact, damage the reputation of the industry. We provide a better experience,

for both the benefit of the brands and the consumers. The lack of technologies that can accurately analyse and predict behaviors while driving consumer segmentation can lead to classic repeated mistakes and data limitation approaches. SLM has the solution for the 76% of the marketers who fail to make appropriate use of behavioural data.

GDPR & Privacy

How do you ensure users' data privacy?

We uphold the values of permission and transparency across all of our processes; we put the community at the heart and in control of their profiles. All of our capabilities are patent-protected prediction engines; therefore we are fully compliant with GDPR privacy law and categorically do not mine data.

SLM provides valuable real-time insight whilst avoiding privacy issues; we are focussed personality and the power of prediction. All we learn about, store, and use is information on the user’s responses to music and what this tells us about personality. We simply don’t need or want to know about a user's voting preferences, purchase history, browsing history, family members, income, education, or a whole host of other factors.

nRICH

What is nRich?

nRich is true personalisation at scale; a patented solution which is able to deliver personality profiles through our individual reaction to music - powered by Sounds Like Me.

nRich breathes life and soul into data and delivers personality profiling at scale across all cultures.

nRich is predictive AI utilising our own patented Sounds LIke Me audio profiling survey.

nRich is a unique 1st Party, GDPR-compliant data platform that uses an individual’s reaction to music to map their personality traits and values, and predict their preferences across a multitude of channels.

nRich provides a sophisticated and profound understanding of people including their likes, dislikes, motivations and relationships.

A limitless platform, capable of providing highly personalised enrichments across music, film, tv, dating, education and self-help, magazines, books, shopping, news, leisure activities, apps, radio, employment, health, and brand engagement plus countless others.

What is Looks Like Me?

Beyond SLM, we have the ability to create meticulously personalised and predictive profiles of individuals across a wide range of data points including personality, demographics, socio-cultural values and multimedia, such as music, TV, films and books. This is what we call Looks Like Me.

With even small amounts of data, we can create a bigger, more insightful picture of the individual; making compelling predictions & evidence-based profiles. Our research shows the magnitude of these relationships, as demonstrated in the accompanying graph.

We can predict liking for music from personality, cultural values and demographics. This works in reverse - meaning we can use personality, cultural values and demographics (from any source) to predict music preferences.

Additionally, we can predict film, TV, and book preferences from personality, values and demographics (from any source). This also works vice versa, meaning we can predict personality, values and demographics from movie, TV and book preferences.

What are socio-cultural values?

Our sociocultural values reflect the differing priorities of different cultures, and the ways in which cultures work differently to one another. These also shape what individuals prioritise, find valuable, and find socially acceptable and desirable. For example, many Western and Eastern cultures differ in the value they place on the independence of the individual versus maintaining the cohesion of social groups, with consequences for each individual’s aspirations, desires, and what they regard as socially acceptable attitudes and behaviours.