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Fight-Or-Flight Response

Definition

In 1929, Walter Cannon proposed ways in which the human body and nervous system, and those of other species, evolved to cope with immediate threats to their well-being and safety. These threats elicit strong emotions and prepare the body (e.g., increase in blood pressure, release of sugar for use by muscles) for a vigorous and immediate behavioral response to the threat—that is, either fighting or fleeing. The emotions Cannon focused on were fear and anger or rage. The emotion of anger suppresses fear, and the accompanying physiological changes prepare the individual for combat. The behavioral engagement in physical fighting was largely discussed as male-on-male combat, either in the context of war, a one-on-one contest, or during sporting events. Fear often results in similar physiological changes but, in contrast to anger, prepares the individual to avoid potential injury, often by fleeing the threatening situation.

Analysis

The basic features of Cannon's argument appear to be correct, although some of the emotional and physical effects of threats are subtler and can be longer lasting than originally proposed. Moreover, his proposal was largely focused on males and fighting, but nonetheless other scientists and the general public often extended the fight-or-flight response to include females. In 2000, S. E. Taylor and her colleagues proposed that women, and females of some other species, are more likely to behaviorally respond to threats by tending to children and befriending other women rather than by fighting or fleeing. Of course, women will fight or flee under some conditions, but they may not have the same evolved fight-or-flight response as men. Tending to children is based on the finding that parenting is more common among females than males in most species, including humans. Befriending is focused on maintaining a network of social support to help with tending when threatened and to provide a more general source of support to cope with mild day-to-day stressors. Taylor et al.'s tending-and-befriending proposal adds an important dimension to Cannon's 1929 work and highlights differences in the ways in which women and men often respond to threatening or stressful situations. Of course, men often tend to children and can develop a network of friends that provide support in threatening situations, but men may not have the same evolved tend-and-befriend response as women, as David C. Geary and Mark Flinn noted in 2002.

  • fight-or-flight response
  • emotion
  • threats
  • anger
  • fear
David C.Geary
http://dx.doi.org/10.4135/9781412956253.n218
See also

Further Readings

Cannon, W. B.(1929). Bodily changes in pain, hunger, fear, and rage: An account of recent researches into the function of emotional excitement. New York: D. Appleton.
Geary, D. C., Flinn, M. V.Sex differences in behavioral and hormonal response to social threat: Commentary on Taylor et al. (2000). Psychological Review109745–750(2002). http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0033-295X.109.4.745
Taylor, S. E., Klein, L. C., Lewis, B. P., Gruenewald, T. L., Gurung, R. A. R., Updegraff, J. A.Biobehavioral responses to stress in females: Tend-and-befriend, not fightor-flight. Psychological Review107411–429(2000). http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0033-295X.107.3.411
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