the.com/goose bumps
Your skin preparing for a fight your brain already quit.
means The little bumps that rise on your skin when you're cold or startled or deeply moved, caused by tiny muscles pulling each hair follicle upright.
from Named for its resemblance to the skin of a plucked goose — all those raised little bumps where the feathers used to be. The reflex itself is a leftover from furrier ancestors, for whom puffed-up hair meant trapped heat or a bigger-looking silhouette against a threat; we kept the wiring long after we lost the fur. English settled on 'goose bumps' or 'goose flesh' for it, though older speech also knew it as 'goose skin' — the poultry comparison apparently just stuck.
- actual cause
- tiny muscles yanking hair follicles upright
- evolutionary leftover
- used to fluff fur for warmth or threat
- useless now
- humans lack the fur to make it work
- triggered by
- cold, fear, or really good music