Major harmonies in music are often associated with evoking feelings of happiness and minor harmonies feelings of sadness, but these responses may not actually be universal.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Funded by the Western Sydney University, a recent study performed by a team of researchers found that this association could be tracked as a belief held by those in Western society, likely due to association or cultural learning.<\/p>\n

The researchers compared people\u2019s enjoyment of major and minor music with two groups \u2014 one in Sydney, Australia and a second group from a selection of villages in Papua New Guinea.<\/p>\n

While there was a clear preference for music in a major progression for the volunteers from Sydney, this couldn\u2019t be replicated in the second group.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were largely open-minded about what the results in Papua New Guinea would be. We did have very strong expectations for the participants being tested in Sydney, based on prior research, so the question really was whether people in PNG would show similar response patterns or not,\u201d said lead researcher Eline Adrianne Smit.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe expected that the more familiar people are with the major and minor chords and melodies, the more similar their responses would be to participants from Sydney.\u201d<\/p>\n