Why Do We Get Goosebumps?
Why do we get goosebumps?
Imagine you're watching a scary movie and a masked man suddenly appears and kills the beautiful girl, scaring the hell out of you and giving you those infamous "goosebumps".
Imagine you're watching a horror movie where a masked man suddenly appears and kills the beautiful girl, scaring you out of your body and giving you some ugly goosebumps.
To get over the scary film that you were just watching, you decide to go for a swim in a nearby lake.
To forget about the horror movie you just watched, you decide to go for a swim in a nearby lake.
The water is quite warm, but there is a strong wind blowing, and the moment you step out of the water, you feel chilly and for the second time that night, you get goosebumps.
The water was warm, but it was windy, and when you stepped out of the water, you felt cold, and that night you got goosebumps again.
That same night, you're listening to some old music, and it brings back some fond memories.
Or the same night, you're listening to some old songs that bring back some good memories for you.
You begin to get all nostalgic（怀旧的） and emotional, and guess what! You get "goosebumps" yet again!
You start to get nostalgic and emotional, guess what! You're getting goosebumps again!
So, why do these three unrelated events all seem to produce the same physical reaction in the body?
So why do all three unrelated events seem to produce the same physiological response in the body?
What are goosebumps and why do we get them?
What are goosebumps? And why do you get goosebumps?
Goosebumps are tiny elevations of the skin at the base of the hair, causing our skin to resemble（像） the skin of poultry（家禽） after the feathers have been plucked.
Goosebumps are tiny bulges in the skin at the base of the hair that cause our skin to look like the skin of poultry after plucking.
The physical reaction of goosebumps have been passed to humans from our animal ancestors, who once had a lot more hair on their bodies.
The physiological reaction to goosebumps is passed down from our animal ancestors, who once had a lot of hair on their bodies.
Goosebumps are caused when stress (cold temperature, perceived（感知到的） threat, intense emotions etc.) is experienced by our brain.
When our brains feel stress (cold temperatures, perceived threats, strong emotions, etc.), they get goosebumps.
In these moments, the nervous system sends a message to nerve endings that trigger the arrector（立肌） pili muscles, which cause goosebumps to appear.
At these moments, the nervous system sends a message to the nerve endings, triggering the tresptonus muscle, which causes goosebumps.
In animals with long hair, goosebumps help them protect against cold weather, as standing hair provides more insulation（隔离） to the body.
For long-haired animals, goosebumps can help them fend off cold weather, as upright hairs isolate the body more from the outside world.
Also, a number of animals, including cats, use goosebumps to look larger and more intimidating when they feel threatened.
In addition, many animals, including cats, get goosebumps when they feel threatened to make themselves look bigger and more frightening.
In humans, goosebumps are a pretty useless feature, as we do not have much hair on our skin, but it can be a good indicator（指示） of our surroundings, whether we are too chilly, nervous, overextended, or emotionally drained!
Goosebumps are a rather useless feature for humans because we don't have much hair on our skin, but it can be a good indicator of our surroundings, whether we're too cold, too nervous, overstretched, or emotionally out of control!