What causes my visceral reaction to certain stimuli?

Ok, so lately I’ve been watching a lot of Lion documentaries. It’s just like a phase I’m going through. I don’t know why I watch them. I think they’re cool.

Anyways, when I watch the ones out in the wild and they kill their prey, it makes me flinch, but nothing more.

Just now, I watched one where humans got attacked, and I had a much different reaction. It was to the point that I was yelling at the screen.

It made me wonder, why do I hardly flinch when I watch them kill a buffalo, but get all excited when they attack a human?

Also, feel free to extrapolate on this question as far as you like.

Er, maybe because you are not a buffalo, but you are a human.

Or am I assuming too much?

because we’re emotional creatures, and we feel some attachment to other creatures who look like us. A buffalo looks like a cow, and we (by and large) eat cows, so other animals eating cows doesn’t necessarily faze us. Even if said animals start eating said cows while they’re still alive and screaming.

the other thing is that we’ve convinced ourselves we’re at the top of the animal kingdom, so on the occasion another animal runs afoul of that assumption, we get all butthurt.

It’s an empathic reaction. You’re imagining yourself in the place of the human who’s getting attacked.

I know it was a simple question but I kind of needed it sprlled out for me. Thanks for all the replies.

Also, imagine 2 humans living 10,000 years ago. One has a pronounced emotional response when he sees a scary animal threaten a human. He remembers this. For the other it’s just another day on the Serengeti.

The guy with the emotional response is likely to think about lions et al, survive longer, and produce more offspring. His kids and his clan will live longer too, to the extent that knowledge is communicated.