The question of why music evolved has been contemplated and debated for centuries across multiple disciplines. While many theories have been posited, they still do not fully answer the question of why humans began making music. Adding to the effort to solve this mystery, we propose the socio-affective fiction (SAF) hypothesis. Humans have a unique biological need for emotion regulation strengthening. Simulated emotional situations, like dreams, can help address that need. Immersion is key for such simulations to successfully exercise people's emotions. Therefore, we propose that music evolved as a signal for SAF to increase the immersive potential of storytelling and thereby better exercise people's emotions. In this review, we outline the SAF hypothesis and present cross-disciplinary evidence.

中文翻译：

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音乐作为社会情感小说的进化工具。


几个世纪以来，多个学科一直在思考和争论音乐为何发展的问题。尽管已经提出了许多理论，但它们仍然没有完全回答人类为什么开始创作音乐的问题。为了进一步解决这个谜团，我们提出了社会情感小说（SAF）假设。人类对加强情绪调节有独特的生物学需求。模拟的情感情境，比如梦，可以帮助满足这种需求。沉浸感是此类模拟成功锻炼人们情感的关键。因此，我们建议音乐演变为SAF的信号，以增加讲故事的沉浸式潜力，从而更好地锻炼人们的情感。在这篇综述中，我们概述了 SAF 假设并提供了跨学科证据。