Scream
I've recently become a bit fascinated by the scream response. After my friend screamed pretty violently while watching the film "The Descent" I started thinking about it and figured out that it actually relates to the research I am doing. It seemed obvious to me that my friend did not intend to scream. It was probably an automatic response. I know that this is not always the case, as seen in teenage girls who specifically go to horror movies so they can act hysterically. Another example I can give to prove that sometimes people scream automatically and sometimes quite embarrassingly is when I hid in my friend's car with him and another friend completely unaware of my presence in the car. When turning into his home street I started making a creepy dim-voiced noise and arose from the trunk. My two friends who were sitting in the front seats looked at the ghost in the back and screamed in beautiful unison. I remember their fearful eyes and although it was quite funny I did not enjoy scaring my friends. They were of course a bit embarrassed but I suspect that probably everyone would have acted in the same way. Why? Why do we scream when we are frightened? I think one tempting and perhaps obvious explanation is that we are screaming for help. Our brain evolved in vastly different environment than we are exposed to now and in that environment (well yeah, the savannah) it would have been helpful if we were to face a predator or an enemy to scream for help. The fact that this response has possibly become an automated behavioural response to threat underscores its potential adaptiveness through human evolution. And of course this response can still be helpful. If you scream it is much more likely that you will receive help and more likely you will avoid serious injury or death. So why do we scream? Well, we don't wanna die, do we?
This entry was posted on mánudagur, ágúst 25, 2008 at 1:16 f.h.. | You can skip to the end and leave a response. 
