FANS of heavy metal music are usually portrayed as long-haired students playing air guitar in their grubby rooms. Classical music lovers, by contrast, are stereotyped as serious, grey-haired and overwhelmingly middle-class.

But these apparent opposites have more in common than people might imagine, according to a study yesterday.

Researchers found fans of Motorhead shared "virtually identical" personality traits with Mozart lovers, both being unusually creative and introverted.

As part of a study into the link between people's musical tastes and their personalities, psychologists at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh asked more than 36,000 people worldwide to rate 104 musical styles and questioned them on aspects of their personality.

Professor Adrian North, Heriot-Watt's head of applied psychology, said the results showed musical tastes could directly reflect people's characters.

While indie music listeners tended to lack self-esteem, pop music fans were largely uncreative, he said. People into country and western were hard-working, rap fans were outgoing, and lovers of jazz and classical music were innovative and bursting with self-confidence.

Most surprisingly, he said: "I was struck by how similar fans of heavy metal and classical music really are. Apart from the age differences, they were virtually identical.

"Both were more creative than other people, both were not terribly outgoing and they were also quite at ease with themselves."

But Susan Nickalls, a classical music reviewer for The Scotsman, poured scorn on his theory. "What do you do if you like hip-hop, jazz, classical and rock – does that mean you are schizophrenic?" she asked. "How can you say that everyone who goes to an opera is creative? This guy should research something serious.

"I like heavy metal and I like classical and I like opera. I like Whitesnake, and my favourite operas include Tosca. When the heroine throws herself off the battlements, heavy metal people might say that's the equivalent of bashing your guitar on stage."

Fiona Shepherd, The Scotsman's rock music critic, said it would be good if the survey contributed to the rehabilitation of the heavy metal music fan, to give a more "rounded and surprising picture".

Prof North suggested fans of jazz and soul had the "best" character traits, including high self-esteem and an outgoing nature. He went on: "People often define their sense of identity through their musical taste, wearing particular clothes, going to certain pubs, and using certain types of slang. It's not so surprising that personality should also be related to musical preference."

Some 36,518 people from countries as far afield as Malaysia, China, Japan and Chile were asked to rate musical styles ranging from chart pop to Bollywood music and opera as part of the Heriot-Watt study.

Are the researchers right? We asked the experts

• FIONA Shepherd, The Scotsman's rock and pop critic.

Age: 39

Favourite heavy metal artists: AC/DC and Motrhead.

Likes: Film, theatre and television.

Dislikes: Sport – either watching or participating.

Ideal Sunday afternoon activity: Reading a book.

She said: " As the study points out, heavy metal has very theatrical elements to it.

"Another trait it shares with some aspects of classical music is that it can be quite operatic in style."

• KEN Walton, The Scotsman's classical music critic.

Age: 50

Favourite composers: Bach and Debussy.

Likes: Walking, gardening and cooking.

Dislikes: Shopping, especially window shopping.

Ideal Sunday: A pint in the local pub. He said: "Comparing heavy metal with classical music is like comparing 20th-century expressionist music with pop music. It's meaningless, because classical is a genre where the other is an integral movement or sub-genre."