By Robin Lin
Think about the last time you saw a cockroach, spider, or something that you were afraid of. Did you yell or scream? Imagine that you witness a bloody murder and you are terribly horrified. What would you do? Run away immediately? Stand frozen on the spot? Interestingly, all of these reactions are possible, and different people react differently even to the same situation. While you are screaming over a cockroach crawling in front of you, someone else might run away. Have you ever wondered how we react to things we are afraid of? First, let’s get a little background knowledge about fear. Fear is a distressing negative sensation induced by a perceived threat. It is a basic survival mechanism occurring in response to a specific stimulus, such as pain or the threat of danger. Some of the most common fears are of ghosts, cockroaches, spiders, snakes, heights, enclosed spaces, bridges, needles, and public speaking. However, it’s obvious that most people aren’t afraid of all these things but just two or three of them. What makes a difference, besides our individual natures, is our previous experience, most commonly in childhood. For example, if a child falls into a well and struggles to get out, he or she may develop a fear of heights, enclosed spaces, or water. Common reactions to things we’re afraid of include screaming, trembling, sweating, standing still, running away, and being panicked and anxious (not knowing what to do). Almost everyone has these reactions. Our nerve and endocrine systems make us respond in these ways. Our body wants to warn us that we are afraid, so the body takes action, causing us to sweat or tremble. Or our body wants to stay away and avoid the fearful things; therefore we run, fleeing from the scene. However, if the situation is too terrifying, sometimes our body cannot do anything. That’s why we stand still, or just cry. There can be many physiological changes in the body associated with fear, which can be summarized as the “fight or flight” response. This is our innate response for coping with danger; it works by accelerating the heart rate, dilating the blood vessels, and increasing muscle tension and our breathing rate. As the name suggests, this primitive mechanism helps us survive by either running away or fighting off the danger. It is also used to explain reactions to fear in animals. For example, rats try to escape when threatened, but will fight when cornered. Although some say that the theory is too simple (some animals stand perfectly still so that predators will not see them, some may freeze or play dead in the hope that the predator will lose interest), it is still enough to explain some basic human reactions to fear. In prehistoric times, fighting was manifested in aggressive, combative behavior, and flight was manifested in fleeing potentially threatening situations. Just as in a fantasy movie, when a group of adventurers encounter a dragon some may want to run away and others will decide to fight. In addition, men and women tend to deal with stressful situations differently. Men are more likely to respond to an emergency situation with aggression (fighting), while women are more likely to flee (flight), turn to others for help, or attempt to defuse the situation. During stressful times, a mother is especially likely to show protective responses toward her offspring and affiliate with others for shared social responses to threat. Nevertheless, there are always exceptions. When seeing a cockroach in the kitchen, a husband might scream and ask his wife for help, and she calmly crushes the insect without hesitation and mercy. Anything is possible, isn’t it? a
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May 2024
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