Music is a phenomenon enjoyed by almost all people. Although music fans may believe that music is an important part of their lives, not every music appreciator decides to venture further by making music themselves. The purpose of this research was to investigate potential variables that may be associated with whether one plays a musical instrument. Specifically, I investigated the role of four individual difference variables that have previously been correlated with a number of factors related to music: openness to experience, self–music overlap (SMO), curiosity, and need for cognition (NFC). Results from two cross-sectional investigations (ns = 369 and 295) revealed that all four variables were positively related to whether one plays a musical instrument. SMO mediated the relation between openness and whether one plays a musical instrument in all studies. Unlike hypothesized, curiosity and NFC did not serve as mediators to the openness–music link. Collectively, this research sheds light on the underexplored question of who plays musical instruments.
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