ABSTRACT
Over the past twenty-five years the cultural consonance hypothesis has been subject to intense empirical scrutiny. This chapter reviews these findings. Low cultural consonance is a stressful experience that is associated with psychological, physiological, immunological, and physical-morphological health outcomes. Cultural consonance and its health effects have been replicated in different societies, in different cultural domains, in longitudinal studies, and after controlling for relevant alternative explanatory factors. Cultural consonance is an important component of biocultural models in medical and psychological anthropology.
