Fear and the “fight or flight response”

[Lizerd]

Most of us have probably heard of fear stimuli and the basic "fight or flight" response. In truth the "fight or flight" response is fairly misconceiving. First off, it leaves out the earliest response in fear reactions, which is to freeze. This is fairly well exhibited, such as when a deer pauses before getting hit or how a lizard pauses before madly running to safety. When an organism is startled or frightened, an organism pauses for a moment while the brain interprets the stimulus and decides on a course of action. The most typical response is to run for it, and while people may disagree with that consider the following; if a bear runs up to you and tries to eat you, are you going to run or try and fight? Obviously your instincts tell you to run. This biologically makes the most sense as running away has the least risk involved. Only if something is cornered does it resort to fighting. Fighting is a high risk activity as it can lead to injuries, infection, or possibly death. As a result it is an utter last resort.