what causes the hairs on your arms to stand up?

Answer 1

either you are cold or if you are in a thunderstorm you are about to be struck by lightning.

Answer 2

Whether from emotion or environment, the hairs stand up on your arms because there is a tiny muscle attached to the hair follicle called the arrector pili. Some people believe that ghosts or spirits cause it, but at least this is the technical definition.

Answer 3

Hair standing on end in general is part of the old fright, flight mechanism that we retain from our animal origins. When faced with something scary our hearts beat faster we get sweaty, ready to run. Our hair/fur stands on end to puff us up and make us appear larger and frighten the enemy away. Of course is now a wasted response.

Answer 4

Having witnessed my wife, soaking her feet in a bowl of water whilst sitting beneath an Electric 'Hair-Dryer' !
"To her surprise did cause the hairs on her arms to Stand-Up".

Answer 5

erector pilli muscles on the end of the hair follicle trap air when we get cold to make the hair stand on end to warm the body up again

Answer 6

while i was a little child, my bigs usually say when a ghost passes around you, hairs on the body stands up. don't know if it works or its true.

Answer 7

2 things. cold or fright. they are both reflexes for when we had more hair, designed to keep us warmer or look bigger respectively. try scaring your cat - it does the same thing. don't put it in the freezer to test the cold reflex, because you will probably just trigger the fright reflex.

Answer 8

The cold and if it think about creepy things like insects and ghosts etc.

Answer 9

I should imagine fear of the unknow or just pure fear!!!

Answer 10

When I am cold.