We've all turned to melancholy music to make us feel better at some point in our lives, but why does doubling down on the sadness help drag us out of the mire?

我們都曾在生命中的某些時(shí)刻通過(guò)聽(tīng)悲傷的歌來(lái)讓自己好受一些，但是為什么更多的悲傷反而會(huì)讓我們走出低谷呢？

A new study sheds light on what's going on inside our brains when we match our music to our feels, and it looks like sad music can be enjoyable - rather than simply depressing - because it triggers positive memories that can help to lift our mood.

一項(xiàng)新的研究闡明了當(dāng)我們將所聽(tīng)的音樂(lè)與心中感受配對(duì)的時(shí)候我們大腦里到底發(fā)生了什么。其結(jié)果顯示：悲傷的音樂(lè)也能帶來(lái)愉悅（而非簡(jiǎn)單地令人低落），因?yàn)樗�能通過(guò)觸發(fā)積極的回憶來(lái)使我們的心情變好。

Psychologist Adrian North from Curtin University in Australia says there are two groups of possible explanations for why we enjoy listening to sad music like this: one from social psychology, and one from cognitive neuroscience.

澳大利亞科廷大學(xué)的心理學(xué)家阿德里安·諾斯說(shuō)，對(duì)于我們?yōu)槭裁催@么享受悲傷的歌曲這一點(diǎn)，有兩派可能的解釋：一派來(lái)自社會(huì)心理學(xué)，一派來(lái)自認(rèn)知神經(jīng)科學(xué)。

In terms of social psychology, one way of thinking about this is that we feel better about ourselves if we focus on someone who's doing even worse, a well-known process known as downward social comparison. Everything's going to be okay, because this person is having an even worse day than you are.

從社會(huì)心理學(xué)這一派來(lái)講，有一種思路是：當(dāng)我們把注意力集中在一個(gè)比我們過(guò)得還慘的人身上時(shí)，我們會(huì)覺(jué)得好受些，這個(gè)過(guò)程就是著名的下行社會(huì)比較。一切都會(huì)好起來(lái)的，因?yàn)檫@個(gè)人比你過(guò)得更慘。

Another hypothesis from social psychology is that people like to listen to music that mirrors the tone of their current life circumstances – the songs act as a sort of tuning fork for our own situations, and they resonate with us.

社會(huì)心理學(xué)這一派的另一個(gè)假說(shuō)是：人們喜歡聽(tīng)那些能反映自己現(xiàn)在生活境況基調(diào)的音樂(lè)，這些歌對(duì)于我們的境況來(lái)講起到了類似音叉的作用，他們與我們產(chǎn)生了共鳴。

（來(lái)源：恒星英語(yǔ)）