The Awe-Inspiring Science Behind Goosebumps
I never really thought about the term “goosebumps” until it appeared on a vocabulary list in my high school French class. In French, this peculiar phenomenon is called “la chaire de poule,” which translates to “chicken flesh.” Chicken flesh… goosebumps… gross! But what does chicken flesh have to do with an overly air-conditioned office or a scary movie?
The answer lies in the physiology of survival. Goosebumps start with a jolt of adrenaline stimulating the sympathetic nervous system. That’s the same system which dictates the fight or flight response, and sparks all sorts of sudden reactions, like pupil dilation, sweating, and heart rate acceleration.
The goosebump mechanism involves a tiny muscle called the arrector pili, or APM. The APM, attached to the hair follicle, is responsible for making hairs stand up. When the muscle contracts, nearby skin is pushed up and forms bumps, resembling the skin of a chicken or goose after its feathers have been plucked.
The reasons why the hairs stand up in the first place likely date back to our ancestors, who had more body hair than we do today. For most mammals, this hair-raising response is an effective way to stay warm because thick fur traps air in an insulating layer. Unfortunately, humans do not have enough body hair to enjoy this benefit — nowadays we only notice the goosebumps.
Of course, goosebumps as a primitive sleeping bag explains the reaction to an air-conditioned office, but what about the scary movie?
Once again, goosebumps make more sense for furry animals than for humans. Mammals look bigger and scarier when their fur is raised, so they’ve evolved to trigger this reaction when they feel threatened. Goosebumps in humans, we can conclude, are about as vestigial as our tailbones.
A 2011 study out of the University of Kentucky investigated various emotional causes of goosebumps, including anger, disgust, awe, romance and surprise. While cold temperatures caused goosebumps with the highest frequency, fear ranked third on their list of goosebump triggers. In second place was a category called awe, which encompassed experiences like hearing an inspiring speech, viewing stunning artwork, listening to emotional music, or observing a breathtaking landscape.
In this study, the vast majority of the “awe” experiences were classified as directly social, meaning that they involved another person’s behavior or performance, or indirectly social, which typically referred to creative works. This pattern demonstrated an interesting connection between goosebumps and social stimuli. Awe, as a trigger for goosebumps, is not as well understood as cold temperatures or fear. But, scientists speculate that it’s closely related to fear because it’s often a response to another person’s superior talents.
When I hear the term ‘goosebumps,’ my first thought is no longer of R.L. Stine’s spooky books and movies, and thankfully, I don’t picture a featherless chicken either. Instead, goosebumps remind me of the fascinating ways that our minds, bodies, and environments interact. Whether your goosebumps are caused by a chilly morning, a startling noise, or a friend’s artwork, there’s a lot more going on than meets the eye.
Thanks to Lauren Manning, Ben Boegehold and David Cohen-Tanugi.
References:
Why Do Humans Get “goosebumps” When They Are Cold, or under Other Circumstances?” Scientific American.
Torkamani, Niloufar, Nicholas W. Rufaut, Leslie Jones, and Rodney D. Sinclair. “Beyond Goosebumps: Does the Arrector Pili Muscle Have a Role in Hair Loss?” International Journal of Trichology. Medknow Publications & Media Pvt Ltd, 2014. Web.
Schurtz, David R., Sarai Blincoe, Richard H. Smith, Caitlin A. J. Powell, David J. Y. Combs, and Sung Hee Kim. “Exploring the Social Aspects of Goose Bumps and Their Role in Awe and Envy.” Motivation and Emotion Motiv Emot 36.2 (2011): 205–17. Web.
Keltner, Dacher, and Jonathan Haidt. “Approaching Awe, a Moral, Spiritual, and Aesthetic Emotion.” Cognition & Emotion 17.2 (2003): 297–314.
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