More “wtf are humans, please leave the rest of us be” stuff:
Human reactions to fear!
No, I’m not talking about screaming or freezing in one spot and pissing yourself. I’m talking about the weirder, more specific-to-only-humans fear reactions.
Like singing.
Idk how many of you have watched people play horror video games, but a surprising amount of people start narrating what’s going on in a sing-song voice.
Imagine being an alien, walking in a horrific, dark tunnel with these weird gangly creatures, you’re all scared out of your wits and then one of them starts fucking singing.
In a dark cave. While everyone’s terrified.
“ ♫ ~We are all gonna fucking die, this is terrible and I wanna go hooooome~ ♬ ”
No one asked but this is because the vibrations stimulate the vagus nerve (which is closely associated with anxiety) and reduce stress & pain signals ! Also often times stress songs we sing are slow which helps regulate breathing and heart rate in you & your group. Singing and humming especially at certain pitches can even help with physical pain.
Also its a way to get out those scared/stressed feelings without panicking or crying (which would like be pretty bad in any scary situation) and most people have more positive associations with singing (when its not related to performance anxiety) so its comforting in that way as well.
So as hilarious as it is it actually makes loads of sense from an evolutionary perspective but then that also bares the question: did cavemen sing while being attacked by wild beasts? Is this why cats purr? Are cat purrs narrating surrounding activity? Why has no one taken away my phone its 5 am?
What I got from this post is that human singing is the equivalent of a cat purr.
