ArticleEmotion review : journal of the International Society for Research on Emotion2024
Music as an Evolved Tool for Socio-Affective Fiction.
Article in Emotion review : journal of the International Society for Research on Emotion, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 3 papers.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Who cites it
3 citing papers in PubMed.
- Music evokes shared neural representations of imagined narratives across sensory modalities.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Differential neural decoding of alarm and avoidance information from vocal alarm calls in humans.Communications biology · 2025Article
- Psychoacoustic and Archeoacoustic nature of ancient Aztec skull whistles.Communications psychology · 2024Article
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Authors and funding
2 authors.
Funding
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Abstract
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.
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