Why do you get goosebumps when scared?

Answer 1

It's an evolutionary holdover from mammals who have more hair.
Have you ever seen a cat puff its fur up when scared or angry? Humans have the same response, but we don't have as much hair to stand on end.

Answer 2

Goose bumps are a temporary local change in the skin. The chain of events leading to this skin change starts with a stimulus such as cold or fear. That stimulus causes a nerve discharge from an involuntary portion of the nervous system called the sympathetic nervous system. The nerve discharge causes contraction of little muscles called the arrectores pilorum (the hair erector muscles). Contraction of these muscles elevates the hair follicles above the rest of the skin. And it is these tiny elevations we perceive as goose bumps.

The words used to describe this condition are curious and colorful. "Goose bumps" are listed in the Merriam- Webster Collegiate Dictionary (as two words in the plural). The term entered English in 1933 to indicate "a roughness of the skin produced by erection of its papillae esp. from cold, fear, or a sudden feeling of excitement."

The word "gooseflesh" (written as one word or as two) is older than "goose bumps." Gooseflesh dates back to about 1810, according to the Oxford English Dictionary (OED), which defines it as "a rough pimply condition of the skin, produced by cold, fear, etc."

A fancier term (and one that only a quiz show buff could love) for this familiar phenomenon is "horripilation." Horripilation was compounded from the Latin "horrere", to stand on end + "pilus", hair = hair standing on end. (If you think "horripilation" sound horrible, you're right. The word "horrible" also came from the Latin "horrere" and referred to something that was so awfully dreadfully frightful that it made your hair stand on end!)

Medicine does not use a horrible term such as "horripilation" and rarely resorts to the commonplace words, goose bumps or gooseflesh. Medicine has a special term, "cutis anserina", that sounds like a scary dermatologic diagnosis. But it goes back to the goose again, since "cutis", skin + "anser", goose = goose skin.

Why humans ever came to need goosebumps is uncertain. Some biologists believe that goosebumps evolved as part of the fight-or-flight reaction along with heart rate increases that send the heart racing while blood rushes to the muscles to give them additional oxygen.

A similar phenomenon, bristling, in fur-covered animals may have made them look larger and more frightening and kept them warmer by increasing the amount of air between hairs which traps body heat. But in people there seems to be no practical purpose for goosebumps except, of course, to make our skin crawl!

Answer 3

Goose bumps are created when tiny muscles at the base of each hair, known as arrectores pilorum, contract and pull the hair erect. The reflex is started by the sympathetic nervous system, which is in general responsible for many fight-or-flight responses.

Answer 4

its funny cause i never get goosebumps when im scared.

Answer 5

Your nerves start to play up...goosebumps appear!

Answer 6

the same reason the hair stands up on your neck and when you feel shivers down your spine its when you hear things go bump in the night sleep tight dont let the bed bugs bite

Answer 7

something to do with 'fight or flight' all your blood rushes to your heart to help you to run if you need to. the sudden rush back to your heart takes the warmth away from the surface of your skin and your dermis(skin) reacts to that sudden cooling.

Answer 8

Because your cool