Preference for Harmony: A Preference for Structural Simplicity, Familiarity, or Both?

The preference for harmony (PfH) has been posited to represent an individual difference in the preference for stimuli that are relatively simple, regular, and/or harmonious. We tested whether variations in PfH may also reflect the extent to which individuals prefer stimuli that are more familiar, irrespective of their structural features. To this end, we examined the association between PfH and two behavioral measures of the preference for familiarity, one based on individual differences in the strength of the mere-exposure effect and the other based on preferences for musical chords that appear more versus less frequently within Western musical corpora. Our results showed modest but reliable positive correlations between PfH and both measures. These findings qualify the original interpretation of PfH by suggesting that it at least partially reflects a predilection for stimuli that are more familiar, not just structurally simpler, more regular, and/or more harmonious.