do we know? It isn’t really an adrenaline rush, that feels different and distinctive. Chills are very much at the surface of the skin, it seems, and have a predictable time frame, roughly 30 seconds.
What is happening in the body to cause that sensation?
I don’t know. But are they suggestible? I never knew them to be, but I JUST got one as I opened this thread. Granted, it’s pretty cold in here, but still!
Do you mean chills like when you’re cold, or get a fever, and shiver?
That’s your body trying to raise its temperature with muscle contractions.
Or chills like tingly and goosebumps?
That’s your body trying to warm up, or scare off a predator, by raising the hair on your skin up, of which there isn’t nearly so much compared to when mammals developed that response.
tingly goosebumps, I guess, but not exactly.
Like the kind that make you say, “Oh! A goose went over my grave.”
The phenomenon that makes me say that is much more than a tingly goosebump sensation. It’s accompanied by a brief, whole-body shiver.
Stoid, is that the “chill” you’re talking about?
I’d say what most people call “chills” if they are referring to the skin sensations associated with a sympathetic fright/flight/creeped-out reaction is the phenomenon of piloerection. Probably more useful for porcupines but when your hair stands up you do get a different degree of skin sensitivity, it seems, as if the teeniest draft or movement puts you on additional edge…
I think even the term “getting chills” refers to the similarity of the reaction to getting goose bumps when it’s nippy instead of when its adrenaline-y. Of course you have to be a pretty hairy guy for goose bumps to do you any good when it’s cold, but those vestigial reactions have a way of hanging on through the years…I’d guess the shivery part is just part of the same reflex chain.
Are we talking about “a chill went down my spine” type chills? I get those when I read or see a certain kind of scene…not horror or anything like that, but more like majesty, or awe-inspiring.
Really? I’d never thought of that, but I guess it makes sense. So, when my cat gets all puffy, that’s his version of getting the willies?
It’s the cat’s version of the fight/fright/flight response. Which of the three is about to occur depends on the circumstance but the underlying physiology is the same. So he might be getting the willies but he might be about to attack or he might be getting ready to bolt. It’s all a response to release of the same underlying sympathomimetic amines such as adrenaline.
In some animals–porcupines, say–it’s a bit more productive to have hair bristling about but in a lot of animals it does make them look bigger or more fearsome. For us bald guys, it’s pretty much useless. But at my age I am a flee-er anyway.