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Your brain tries to match sensory data with things, so you hear two noises in the background, something in your head says that sounds familiar, then your brain
by qbrass 10y ago
Your brain tries to match sensory data with things, so you hear two noises in the background, something in your head says that sounds familiar, then your brain goes over it until it comes to the conclusion that it's a tiger or food or the intro to Funkytown. Once your brain makes the association, it thinks the song is relevant and tries to make more associations keeping it in your thoughts.
Music finds it evolutionary beneficial so songs have evolved to become earworms that you'll sometimes spread to other hosts. It's not really detrimental to humans, so there's no impetus to weed it out.
- prmph 10y agoAnd is this a falsifiable explanation, or another of those "just so" speculations?
- stuxnet79 10y agoYes a lot of these theories and speculations tend to not be scientifically tractable. I did an Anthropology minor in college but became very unimpressed with the mainstream theories regarding the evolution of various modern traits. Seemed like a competition to see who could come up with the most seductive, crazy theory and not the falsifiable one.
- qbrass 10y agoI tried to keep it grounded enough to be testable (and probably failed), but it was just speculation in hopes to get the ball rolling on the conversation.
- siquick 10y agoThanks, I now have the intro to Funkytown stuck in my head