Vocal affect is a subcomponent of emotion programs that coordinate a variety of physiological and psychological systems. Emotional vocalizations comprise a suite of vocal behaviors shaped by evolution to solve adaptive social communication problems. The acoustic forms of vocal emotions are often explicable with reference to the communicative functions they serve. An adaptationist approach to vocal emotions requires that we distinguish between evolved signals and byproduct cues, and understand vocal affect as a collection of multiple strategic communicative systems subject to the evolutionary dynamics described by signaling theory. We should expect variability across disparate societies in vocal emotion according to culturally evolved pragmatic rules, and universals in vocal production and perception to the extent that form–function relationships are present.

人声是情绪程序的一个子组件，可协调各种生理和心理系统。情感发声包括一系列通过进化形成的语音行为，以解决适应性社会沟通问题。声音情感的声学形式通常可以根据它们所服务的沟通功能来解释。适应主义者对声音情感的处理方法要求我们区分进化的信号和副产物线索，并将声音的影响理解为受信号理论描述的进化动力学影响的多种战略性交际系统的集合。我们应该根据文化演变的实用规则，预期不同社会在声音情感上的差异性，