October 13, 2021
Keio University
An international collaborative research team led by Associate Professor Patrick Savage of the Faculty of Environment and Information Studies at Keio University published a target article in "Behavioral and Brain Sciences" on September 30, 2021, as part of a special issue featuring 62 contributions from 120 researchers. The research team integrates evidence from musicology, neuroscience, evolutionary biology, anthropology, archaeology, and psychology to present the "social bonding" hypothesis, which explains how the biological capacity for making music arises through gene-culture coevolution by facilitating connections between individuals and larger groups. 109 experts joined the debate on this hypothesis and the opposing "credible signaling" hypothesis from psychologists at Harvard University. This study presents a model that combines the natural sciences and humanities for a fruitful interdisciplinary discussion on major questions in the history of human evolution.
Please see below for the full press release.