1. Introduction
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 Intercultural tensions are a global threat, ranging from anti-Muslim sentiment due to fear of terrorism, to Chinese people being blamed and vilified for the COVID-19 pandemic, to violence against First Nations communities and people of colour. Underlying such tensions is a lack of cultural empathy and implicit biases that have developed through prolonged exposure to biased media and pervasive social attitudes. For example, Muslims are frequently portrayed as aggressive, violent, and threatening in the public media [A significant challenge in identifying such strategies is that cultural differences are vast and may include differences in religious beliefs, norms for dress and communication, gender roles, and degrees of individualism or collectivism. We contend, however, that embodied engagement with a traditional cultural practice may inspire cultural tolerance and open-mindedness. Music represents an ideal introduction to another culture because it does not need to conflict with long-standing belief systems. As such, intercultural music engagement (IME) provides a simple and benign activity through which one can learn to understand the traditions of another culture. Although IME can be achieved by merely listening to music (e.g., [What features of music and underlying mechanisms might account for such an impact? According to the Therapeutic Music Capacities Model, music acts like a combination therapy by triggering numerous mechanisms that ultimately have implications for cognitive, psychosocial, behavioural, and motor function [It is reasonable to assume that engaging in music from another culture activates the same set of physical and psychological mechanisms, but results in outcomes that also provide cultural understanding. As music is a powerful carrier of cultural information, music engagement can provide an effective means of attaining cultural understanding [Ethnographic evidence supports the premise of The present study was designed to examine the effects of RIME on intercultural understanding for White Australians. In this study, White Australians refer to people living in Australia who do not identify as First Nations or a person of colour. RIME was operationalised as 