Creeper
Junior Member Rank 1
Posts: 39
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Post by Creeper on May 1, 2015 1:44:15 GMT 5
Well most people I know flail helplessly when confronted with tiny animals like mice, snake, and spiders. It is by no means a small percent of the population that respond in that way when confronted with unfamiliar wildlife. I've personally watched a group of adult men flee in terror from a particularly aggressive squirrel. I feel most people will continue to try to escape a predation attempt until they perish or make a successful get away. The average person is going to be overwhelmed by their "flight instinct," but a person with conditioning may fair better.
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Post by creature386 on May 1, 2015 2:23:12 GMT 5
We may sometimes overestimate ourselves, but I think if anything, we UNDERESTIMATE ourselves. Now that doesn't mean we stand a chance against a tiger or anything, but some people think that a grown man will panic and flail helplessly allowing a 50 lb animal to kill him. I also wonder that how do you posters really know what most people will do in a crisis? It's nothing more than speculation. From how I understood Vodmeister's links, they talk about humans overestimating themselves when comparing themselves to other humans, not overestimating the species itself. Even the great human haters probably still believe they are somehow smarter than other humans. |
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Post by malikc6 on May 1, 2015 2:34:13 GMT 5
Well most people I know flail helplessly when confronted with tiny animals like mice, snake, and spiders. It is by no means a small percent of the population that respond in that way when confronted with unfamiliar wildlife. I've personally watched a group of adult men flee in terror from a particularly aggressive squirrel. I feel most people will continue to try to escape a predation attempt until they perish or make a successful get away. The average person is going to be overwhelmed by their "flight instinct," but a person with conditioning may fair better. It's not the simple actually. Yes people often do get scared when a mouse or a rat or something small pops out of nowhere. It's mostly by surprise, and we hate getting bitten. For me as an individual, I have gotten scared of a rat that popped out of a hole a few times, but a larger animal would be different. It's not as unexpected as a very small animal would be. Basically this. I wake up one day and go downstairs for some water, and a rat pops out of nowhere. I'm gonna jump back. If I'm in the woods and I see a bobcat, I won't back down if it gets aggressive and its my last resort to fight. |
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Post by malikc6 on May 1, 2015 2:43:25 GMT 5
We may sometimes overestimate ourselves, but I think if anything, we UNDERESTIMATE ourselves. Now that doesn't mean we stand a chance against a tiger or anything, but some people think that a grown man will panic and flail helplessly allowing a 50 lb animal to kill him. I also wonder that how do you posters really know what most people will do in a crisis? It's nothing more than speculation. From how I understood Vodmeister's links, they talk about humans overestimating themselves when comparing themselves to other humans, not overestimating the species itself. Even the great human haters probably still believe they are somehow smarter than other humans. That is true, humans often do overestimate themselves when against other humans in all ways, and we are all guilty of this, but it's pride and our egos that push us to do so. I don't have too much of an issue when comparing strength, but when people want to compare intelligence or who is smarter, that's where I draw the line. I used to have a friend who suffered from narcissistic personality disorder, and because he envied most of his friends for traits he wanted to have, he decided to compare his intelligence to his other friends and make up his delusional conclusion that he was "smarter." At first I disregarded it, but it got worse, and one day, I asked him this. Smarter in terms of what? In fact, I ask anyone that question that feels that they are smarter than others. Do you know anything about animals? Do you know how to massage people? Do you know how to play chess? Do you know human history? Do you know etc. What field are you "smarter" in? Other than non humans animals, you cannot be better at someone in everything unless the person you're comparing yourself to someone who doesn't do anything. |
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Post by theropod on May 1, 2015 2:51:19 GMT 5
And how do you know that? Is that anything other than speculation?
The bigger and more dangerous-looking an animal is, the more pronounced the instinct to flee will probably be. We’re programmed to be intimidated by animals that are actually a direct danger to us, and that doesn’t include rodents. I don’t jump back when I see a mouse or a rat (or a squirrel lol), but I think I would if while in the woods I suddenly stumbled across a lynx (and yes, that would probably be just as surprising as it would be with a rat).
Now, that doesn’t necessarily mean a lynx would be able to kill me if it attacked (obviously the chances of an attack are tiny to begin with, and if it happened I might be able to pull myself together, I simply don’t know for sure because I’ve never tried it and almost certainly never will), but imo the bigger the animal, the stronger the desire to run away–and not the other way around.
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Post by malikc6 on May 1, 2015 3:11:09 GMT 5
And how do you know that? Is that anything other than speculation? The bigger and more dangerous-looking an animal is, the more pronounced the instinct to flee will probably be. We’re programmed to be intimidated by animals that are actually a direct danger to us, and that doesn’t include rodents. I don’t jump back when I see a mouse or a rat (or a squirrel lol), but I think I would if while in the woods I suddenly stumbled across a lynx (and yes, that would probably be just as surprising as it would be with a rat). Now, that doesn’t necessarily mean a lynx would be able to kill me if it attacked (obviously the chances of an attack are tiny to begin with, and if it happened I might be able to pull myself together, I simply don’t know for sure because I’ve never tried it and almost certainly never will), but imo the bigger the animal, the stronger the desire to run away–and not the other way around. I understand your logic, but to me, smaller animals tend to have "the drop" on you when it comes to surprise factor. Would you jump back if a rat suddenly scurried across your floor and it was unexpected? That's happened to me many times and I did, and though I've never encountered a bob cat, I've encountered aggressive dogs and didn't back down (didn't fight them though lol). They just seem more unexpected and harder to see. This is just me as an individual with similar experiences. Now if the animal is actually bigger than me, or the same size as me, then I'm going to likely be intimidated, but of course this won't stop me from fighting as hard as I can to survive if it came down to that (bear, cougar, wolf, large dog breed.) |
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Creeper
Junior Member Rank 1
Posts: 39
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Post by Creeper on May 1, 2015 6:21:27 GMT 5
I suppose snakes and spiders get a free pass on this one. We are instinctively programmed to avoid them due to the potential venom they may or may not carry. We may have the same trigger for rats and bats due to the potential diseases.
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Post by malikc6 on May 1, 2015 6:55:32 GMT 5
Yeah my grandma is frightened of spiders and roaches, but just like me, she's not too intimidated of dogs. This is a 67 year old woman as well.
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Post by allosaurusatrox on May 1, 2015 11:46:52 GMT 5
I have never thought of myself as better than I really am.  |
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