Rich Intercultural Music Engagement Enhances Cultural Understanding: The Impact of Learning a Musical Instrument Outside of One's Lived Experience

Marjorie G Li; Kirk N Olsen; Jane W Davidson; William Forde Thompson

doi:10.3390/ijerph20031919

Rich Intercultural Music Engagement Enhances Cultural Understanding: The Impact of Learning a Musical Instrument Outside of One's Lived Experience

Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2023 Jan 20;20(3):1919. doi: 10.3390/ijerph20031919.

Authors

Marjorie G Li¹, Kirk N Olsen^{1

2}, Jane W Davidson³, William Forde Thompson^{1

4}

Affiliations

¹ School of Psychological Sciences, Macquarie University, Macquarie Park, NSW 2109, Australia.
² Australian Institute of Health Innovation, Macquarie University, Macquarie Park, NSW 2109, Australia.
³ Faculty of Fine Arts and Music, University of Melbourne, Southbank, VIC 3006, Australia.
⁴ Faculty of Society and Design, Bond University, Robina, QLD 4226, Australia.

Abstract

Rich intercultural music engagement (RIME) is an embodied form of engagement whereby individuals immerse themselves in foreign musical practice, for example, by learning a traditional instrument from that culture. The present investigation evaluated whether RIME with Chinese or Middle Eastern music can nurture intercultural understanding. White Australian participants were randomly assigned to one of two plucked-string groups: Chinese pipa (n = 29) or Middle Eastern oud (n = 29). Before and after the RIME intervention, participants completed measures of ethnocultural empathy, tolerance, social connectedness, explicit and implicit attitudes towards ethnocultural groups, and open-ended questions about their experience. Following RIME, White Australian participants reported a significant increase in ethnocultural empathy, tolerance, feelings of social connection, and improved explicit and implicit attitudes towards Chinese and Middle Eastern people. However, these benefits differed between groups. Participants who learned Chinese pipa reported reduced bias and increased social connectedness towards Chinese people, but not towards Middle Eastern people. Conversely, participants who learned Middle Eastern oud reported a significant increase in social connectedness towards Middle Eastern people, but not towards Chinese people. This is the first experimental evidence that participatory RIME is an effective tool for understanding a culture other than one's own, with the added potential to reduce cultural bias.

Keywords: affordance; attitudes; cultural empathy; embodiment; intercultural music engagement; non-Western music training; racial bias; social connection; tolerance.

Publication types

Randomized Controlled Trial
Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Australia
Culture*
Empathy
Humans
Learning
Music*

Grants and funding

This research was funded by a Discovery Project grant awarded to Professors Jane W Davidson and William Forde Thompson by the Australian Research Council, grant number DP190102978, ‘Social cohesion and resilience through intercultural music engagement’; and by a Macquarie University Government Funded Research Training Program Scholarship, allocation numbers 20213667 and 20224177.