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It is said that you can tell a lot about a person by looking at their bookshelf and music collection.

And now experts have found that certain songs can even affect how generous a person is likely to be.

Japanese scientists discovered that listening to a pleasing song makes individuals more generous, but they become less altruistic if they are played a tune they dislike.

Japanese scientists have found that listening to a pleasing song makes individuals more generous, but they become less altruistic if they are played a tune they dislike. This graph shows changes between the allocation of money before and after listening to pleasing music, disliked music and silence

It has previously been proven that music has the ability to strongly affect a person's emotions and sometimes even control them, with recent studies showing that emotion evoked by listening to a song can affect activity in the limbic and paralimbic brain structures.

Researchers from the Nara University of Education, Japan, conducted an experiment to examine whether music has the power to promote altruistic behaviour.

They asked 11 male and female students, with an average age of 21 years, to complete a questionnaire in which they described their musical tastes and emotional experiences through music.

Individuals then listened to 'chill inducing' music that they liked, as well as a track they said they disliked. 

Both of these tracks were followed by silence, according to the study published in Frontiers in Psychology.

The researchers concluded: 'Preferred music promotes altruistic behaviour, whereas disliked music is associated with selfish behaviour'. So, listening to Justin Bieber (pictured) could make his fans more generous, but people who aren't fans may become more selfish

They were given money and were asked to share it with people who were represented as stylised figures on a computer screen.

This money was distributed before and after listening to the music, with both men and women doling out more money after listening to their favourite songs.

Both sexes were stingier with their donations after hearing music that they disliked, and silence had no effect at all on their generosity.

Consequently, the researchers concluded: 'preferred music promotes altruistic behaviour, whereas disliked music is associated with selfish behaviour, and what differentiates these behaviours is the emotional response dictated by the listener's musical preferences.

The study also found that that on the whole, men were more generous than women, and whether the music had words or not did not make a difference to an individual's generosity.

The study also found that that on the whole, men were more generous than women, and whether the music had words or not did not make a difference to an individual's generosity. An image of One Direction, whose music could either make people more or less generous, is pictured

CAN HIP HOP BEAT DEPRESSION? 

Scientists at the University of Cambridge claimed last month that listening to hip hop can help suffering from depression.

'There is often a message of hope in among the lyrics, describing the place where they want to be – the cars they want to own, the models they want to date,' the researchers wrote.

In an article in The Lancet Psychiatry, the team claims that lyrics which speak of overcoming hardships and struggles can offer refuge.

Researchers recommend The Message by Grandmaster Flash (pictured) & The Furious Five, released in 1982, which includes the lyrics: 'I can't take the smell, can't take the noise Got no money to move out, I guess I got no choice' to help beat depression

'Much of hip-hop comes from areas of great socioeconomic deprivation, so it's inevitable that its lyrics will reflect the issues faced by people brought up in these areas, including poverty, marginalisation, crime and drugs,' said Dr Akeem Sule, of the University of Cambridge.

'In fact, we can see in the lyrics many of the key risk factors for mental illness, from which it can be difficult to escape.

'Hip-hop artists use their skills and talents not only to describe the world they see, but also as a means of breaking free.

'We believe that hip-hop, with its rich, visual narrative style, can be used to make therapies that are more effective for specific populations and can help patients with depression to create more positive images of themselves, their situations and their future.'