Proverbs and cultural consonance

The proverbs that are known and used in a given language by some group of interest provide insight into the values, perceptions and experiences of the users. These aspects of collective knowledge contribute to a cultural model that is specific to the group in question. Increasingly, gaps in cultural consonance, the extent to which actual experience conforms to the expectations formed by a person’s cultural model, are observed to contribute to wellbeing, psychological and physical health. This article considers the ways in which proverbs contribute to cultural models and how models generated in this way can serve as a baseline for the study of cultural consonance. Examples are provided from American English and Malay, which serve as a comparison with each other as well as with new cultural models disseminated by the media.