We've all turned to melancholy¹ 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 mire²?

我们都曾在生命中的某些时刻通过听悲伤的歌来让自己好受一些，但是为什么更多的悲伤反而会让我们走出低谷呢？

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.

一项新的研究阐明了当我们将所听的音乐与心中感受配对的时候我们大脑里到底发生了什么。其结果显示：悲伤的音乐也能带来愉悦（而非简单地令人低落），因为它能通过触发积极的回忆来使我们的心情变好。

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 psychology³, and one from cognitive⁴ neuroscience.

澳大利亚科廷大学的心理学家阿德里安·诺斯说，对于我们为什么这么享受悲伤的歌曲这一点，有两派可能的解释：一派来自社会心理学，一派来自认知神经科学。

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.

从社会心理学这一派来讲，有一种思路是：当我们把注意力集中在一个比我们过得还惨的人身上时，我们会觉得好受些，这个过程就是著名的下行社会比较。一切都会好起来的，因为这个人比你过得更惨。

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 tuning⁵ fork for our own situations, and they resonate with us.

社会心理学这一派的另一个假说是：人们喜欢听那些能反映自己现在生活境况基调的音乐，这些歌对于我们的境况来讲起到了类似音叉的作用，他们与我们产生了共鸣。