“Our results show there is a profound cultural difference in the way people respond to consonant and dissonant sounds," said Josh McDermott, MIT's lead author of the study. Consonant chords typically consist of notes that harmonise, or sound good together. By contrast, dissonant chords typically jar and are less pleasing to hear.

The team surveyed a number of cultures across the world, including the Tsimane' tribe, an indigenous tribe in Bolivia which has an "unusual" way of expressing music.

Rather than playing music simultaneously and harmoniously, as in Western countries, they play one line at a time. These tastes are a result of the music we are exposed to growing up, not genetic factors. And, as McDermott says, because nearly everyone is exposed to Western music, whether pop songs or symphonies, people have wrongly come to believe that there is a shared, universal standard for what makes music sound good.

The full study can be found online at nature.com