Why heavy metal fans are well-adjusted

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Where previous studies have shown that heavy metal fans are smarter than some thought, newer research suggests they are more well-adjusted too. According to the original study, heavy metal fans have happier times of youth and end up as “better adjusted” adults as well.

The authors of the study give several reasons for this, notably that heavy metal fans have a stronger support group than most other types of teenager and that having an identity protected them against getting lost in the ego-death of adolescent anonymity, but the study might look at another factor: heavy metal is dedicated to reality and against authority for its own sake. This keeps teenagers away from the manipulations of others and simultaneously point them toward the only thing that ultimately makes any person well-adjusted, which is a strong outer realism and thriving “inner self” or core of personality adapted to that realism.

The study did hit a dark note regarding survivorship bias however:

The research comes with a caveat: The study featured “relatively high functioning individuals who volunteered to participate and report on their lives.” If some people really were so drawn into a dark lifestyle that they became drug addicts or suicide victims, they’d obviously not be around decades later to take an hour-long survey.

In other words, because metalheads pursue life to its extremes, the only metalheads left today to report these positive results are the ones who did not self-destruct during their youth. One might be able to get the same results from a group of octogenarian heroin addicts. However, study results also showed that fans from other genres faced similar struggles but did not have as positive of results.

With the above in mind, as well as the inherent musicality and artistry of the music, it is no wonder that heavy metal attracts the most loyal audience. This recent research helps obliterate past shoddy research seemingly designed to malign heavy metal and defame its fans.

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8 thoughts on “Why heavy metal fans are well-adjusted”

  1. Sack Blabbath says:

    Prozak, this study isn’t doing what you want it to. A quick scan revealed >>>
    “The sample consisted of 377 adults… Those endorsing heavy metal as their favorite genre of music in the 1980s chose this category based on these band examples provided on the survey: Guns N Roses, Metallica, AC/DC, Def Leppard, Motley Crue, and Iron Maiden.”

    …so, 3 Hard Rock bands and 2 Metal.
    My niggaz need to retool the categories to be something like:
    proto-Black: Venom, Hellhammer, Bathory, Motorhead, Sodom
    Speed/Thrash: Slayer, Metallica, Megadeth, Anthrax, Kreator
    Death: Possession, Death, Morbid Angel, Incantation, Suffocation
    Black: Mayhem, Burzum, Chidren of Bodom, Emperor, Xasthur

    1. Moloko + says:

      or maybe mi nigga B. Stevens should acknowledge already that Guns N Roses, AC/DC, Def Leppard, Motley Crue, ARE METAL bands , instead of going the aspie way of negating them inclusion. your reign of autist elitism shall fall under multiple rainbow colored cocks!! mmphhh !!

      1. Daniel says:

        The only band you named who once made metal was Def Leppard who quickly stopped playing metal.

  2. Nuclear Whore says:

    It’s not the same, but if one wants data one can get the RIP section of Encyclopaedia Metallum and compare.

    Please note that I told “data”, not information. Information needs processing.

  3. OliveFox says:

    The hell are those wonky broads doing in that picture? Practicing for a Cthulu themed shadow-puppet show later that day?

  4. blackmetalkid says:

    Isn’t the boy in the photo wearing a sllipknot t-shirt?
    I thought it was considered blasphemy around these parts.

    1. Sack Blabbath says:

      You thought right. Plus, my nigga on the far left looks like Kurt Cobain hit up Hot Topic, and my nigga on the far right looks like a young Jessica Biel. I’m trying to gauge who is the leader amongst the males — cuz it’s def. not the Kurt Cobain-lookin’ nigga, desperate for inclusion/acceptance. The short-haired cat appears beyond aloof, fully alienated… The Slipknot + Iron Maiden cats seem equals, absorbed in each other (no homo).

      Fuck, I reckon it’s the Slipknot guy.

      1. Moloko + says:

        Slipknot is TOP NOTCH BLACK METAL !!!

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