26 WHAT EVERY BODY IS SAYING
threats, has taken three forms: freeze, flight, and fight. Like other animal
species whose limbic brains protected them in this manner, humans pos-
sessing these limbic reactions survived to propagate because these behav-
iors were already hardwired into our nervous system.
I am sure that many of you are familiar with the phrase “fight-or-f light
response,” which is common terminology used to describe the way in
which we respond to threatening or dangerous situations. Unfortunately,
this phrase is only two-thirds accurate and half-assed backward! In reality,
the way animals, including humans, react to danger occurs in the follow-
ing order: freeze, flight, fight. If the reaction really were fight or flight,
most of us would be bruised, battered, and exhausted much of the time.
Because we have retained and honed this exquisitely successful pro-
cess for dealing with stress and danger—and because the resulting reac-
tions generate nonverbal behaviors that help us understand a person’s
thoughts, feelings, and intentions—it is well worth our time to examine
each response in greater detail.
The Freeze ResponseA million years ago, as early hominids traversed the African savanna,
they were faced with many predators that could outrun and overpower
them. For early man to succeed, the limbic brain, which had evolved
from our animal forebearers, developed strategies to compensate for the
power advantage our predators had over us. That strategy, or first de-
fense of the limbic system, was to use the freeze response in the presence
of a predator or other danger. Movement attracts attention; by immedi-
ately holding still upon sensing a threat, the limbic brain caused us to
react in the most effective manner possible to ensure our survival. Most
animals, certainly most predators, react to—and are attracted by—
movement. This ability to freeze in the face of danger makes sense.
Many carnivores go after moving targets and exercise the “chase, trip,
and bite” mechanism exhibited by large felines, the primary predators
of our ancestors.
Many animals not only freeze their motion when confronted by preda-