Indifference to Dissonance in Native Amazonians Reveals Cultural Variation in Music Perception

(McDermott et al., 2016)

A study was conducted to examine whether the preference for consonance, which refers to the harmonious combination of tones based on specific relationships, as opposed to dissonance, is a culturally learned phenomenon. The researchers surveyed a tribal village called the Tsimane, a community in South America that had minimal contact with Western culture, particularly in terms of music. They compared the results of this survey with surveys conducted in Bolivia (with some exposure to Western culture) and America (divided into two groups: musicians and non-musicians).

The study also included an examination of roughness, and it was found that a dislike for roughness is present in all cultural environments. Roughness refers to closely spaced sound partials within critical bandwidths.

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