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刻通過聽悲傷的歌來讓自己好受一些，但是為什么更多的悲傷反而會讓我們走出低谷呢？

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.

一項新的研究闡明了當我們將所聽的音樂與心中感受配對的時候我們大腦里到底發生了什么。其結果顯示：悲傷的音樂也能帶來愉悅（而非簡單地令人低落），因為它能通過觸發積極的回憶來使我們的心情變好。

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.

澳大利亞科廷大學的心理學家阿德里安·諾斯說，對于我們為什么這么享受悲傷的歌曲這一點，有兩派可能的解釋：一派來自社會心理學，一派來自認知神經科學。

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.

從社會心理學這一派來講，有一種思路是：當我們把注意力集中在一個比我們過得還慘的人身上時，我們會覺得好受些，這個過程就是著名的下行社會比較。一切都會好起來的，因為這個人比你過得更慘。

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.

社會心理學這一派的另一個假說是：人們喜歡聽那些能反映自己現在生活境況基調的音樂，這些歌對于我們的境況來講起到了類似音叉的作用，他們與我們產生了共鳴。

（來源：恒星英語）