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Why do people scream?

Ken

Ken

Well-Known Member
V.I.P Member
I am curious as to your thoughts on why people scream. It seems that most people scream when afraid. Many, when something terrible occurs, stop all action and just scream. For the life of me, I can’t see a benefit to screaming. When something scares me, I usually lock-up, but I never scream. I know that is not very helpful either, but it seems that screaming just adds more distraction to the fearful event. What do you think?
 
I scream when I get very angry, frustrated or feel threatened. I usually gasp when startled.
 
That's something I learned about from Vincent Price many years ago. ;)

Or as the Brits would say, "Mind your Tingler!"

 
Mia said:
I've noticed that where I live teens scream for attention several times, usually at night. They seem to want to achieve some sort of reaction or attention from others. And children playing outside often scream with both excitement and happiness. But it's not the blood curdling one that local kids seem to enjoy late at night.

I'm assuming they have not read or heard of the Aesop fable: 'The Boy Who Cried Wolf.'

Where a shepherd boy repeatedly tricks nearby villagers into thinking a wolf is attacking his town's flock. When a wolf actually does appear and the boy again calls for help, the villagers believe that it is another false alarm and the sheep are eaten by the wolf.
The moral stated at the end of the Greek version is, "this shows how liars are rewarded: even if they tell the truth, no one believes them".
Click to expand...

I had nothing to do with that! But, don't ask about the chickens.:p
 
Ken said:
I am curious as to your thoughts on why people scream. It seems that most people scream when afraid. Many, when something terrible occurs, stop all action and just scream. For the life of me, I can’t see a benefit to screaming. When something scares me, I usually lock-up, but I never scream. I know that is not very helpful either, but it seems that screaming just adds more distraction to the fearful event. What do you think?
Click to expand...

Heavy Metal is a good way to vent a scream. Without you having to do it.
 
I can't actually scream, it's just a weird strangled cry. The only time I ever uttered a natural sounding scream was spontaneous, I didn't make any effort to make the sound. Was quite surprising.

It's one of the worlds most annoying sounds when people use it for 'fun'.
 
I find people scream for no reason. I rode this one ride at the county fair just ONCE. But never rode it again because every one else just wanted to scream for no apparent reason. It wasn't even an intimidating ride either. Just one made to look like a pirate ship or a Viking ship that rocked back and fourth.
One of these. If it wasn't for the screamers (and this one little girl who probably wasn't even old enough to be on it in the first place), it would have been a relaxing ride. I honestly never understood why people rode on rides they felt scared enough to scream on.

If it bothers you that much, why go on it in the first place? If your friends are going to call you names or lambast you for being afraid, are those people really your friends?

Also, I was at the San Antonio Riverwalk and if you walked past some bars, people screamed for no reason.
 
My wife and I have had five kids, three boys and two girls. The girls used startle me a lot when they would scream. I would look to see if they were hurt, but they never were. They would scream when they were playing and scare me to death. The boys never did that, even if they were hurt.
 
Ken said:
I am curious as to your thoughts on why people scream. It seems that most people scream when afraid. Many, when something terrible occurs, stop all action and just scream. For the life of me, I can’t see a benefit to screaming. When something scares me, I usually lock-up, but I never scream. I know that is not very helpful either, but it seems that screaming just adds more distraction to the fearful event. What do you think?
Click to expand...
Terror. Distress.
The human scream and the human toddlers whine are natures way of saying SOS!!!
I just read a book from a female ex prisoner who said the mental health wing in prison had people screaming.
 
I imagine screaming serves pretty much the same function that loud vocalising does with other species. It’s a strong indicator to the attacker (whether it's an actual attacker or some other stressor) that you are experiencing a high degree of stress, thus you are liable to attack if provoked any further, thereby potentially warding off the attacker. A scream is also useful in social species to warn nearby conspecifics of danger and to also rally support. A scream is usually an involuntary response to something unexpected, frightening, or extremely stressful (basically whatever triggers the autonomic nervous system), but I imagine it granted a survival advantage to wild-living ancestors. That’s my take on it anyway, I personally don’t scream although I might yell in certain circumstances.
 
I work in a casino, and people scream a lot. They usually scream for joy when they get a good hand or win a bit of money, or if they're watching a sports game and their team gets a goal.

Sometimes though, they scream for joy when meeting up with friends. This is usually just the girls that do that though.

I don't really see the point of screaming in either circumstance though.
 
The only time I scream is when I'm backed into a corner. I'm normally a very soft-spoken and quiet person, but if you threaten me enough, I lose my cool.

If the screaming doesn't work, then it's time to get physical.
 
For my youngest son, it was his way of punishing us whenever we effectively said no to him or compelled him to take responsibility for his actions. As a teen, the most leverage that we had on him was that he needed a parent's signature to participate in school activities.

"We are willing to sign off on that, but you must complete this or fix this mistake, first."
 
I find people scream due to various things. Most often it will be due to feeling overwhelming emotions, mental breakdowns, or pain.

I personally don't scream that often myself even if I might be afraid of something because I like to be quiet as I am a quiet person.

People will scream if they feel an intense amount of pain because the pain will get to be to a point that they can't control not screaming from it so their only choice is to scream. Same with being frustrated, if someone feels a ton of emotions at one time and can't deal with them they may scream in rage for a short amount of time.

I find that people who generally aren't quiet tend to scream far more than I do. Sometimes people scream quickly out of happiness because they feel so happy and it's just expressing an emotion to them. I find those that feel better from screaming often are likely to benefit from socializing and are used to talking to someone to get relief from something that is causing them stress so screaming is just another form of relief to them.
 
It's a good question. I've never screamed (isn't it more a female thing?). I'm not even sure I could scream vocally. I understand why people DO scream. What's been said here makes sense, especially to frighten away the cause of it in the case of a wild animal that might eat us. But I suspect, as has also been said, it's just a way or releasing powerful unexpected emotion in the moment. Maybe screaming and crying are closely connected?

They say that crying releases toxins, as well as opens the emotional valve. But it is a strange thing to do when emotional - release salty liquid from our eyes. We are strange creatures.
 
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