Are you an ex-gasper? When and why did you stop gasping? You know when you say a word so many times in a short window and you forget what it means?
This is just me pulling an answer out of my ass, but since it happens when we’re surprised, it’s probably the body reflexively taking in air so it’s prepared to deal with the surprise. Which could involve fighting, running, yelling, or holding your breath for a while.
I feel like people trained for emergencies/high stress situations like police, military, mma fighters, even medics are less likely to gasp whereas a defenseless 95 year old woman would be more likely to gasp.
So is gasping a bad defense mechanism or why would we want to have less of a reflexive response in tense situations?
I think those people are just less surprised when something happens. I don’t think they are unlearning how to gasp, but it takes a bit more to trigger it in someone who’s already seen worse than the rest of us want to imagine.
So would it be more beneficial to not gasp? Or gasp less at least?
Similar to above commenter, I’m just flinging poo, but
Those who are trained in the tougher situations are, I imagine, more desensitized and therefore don’t do the egads! sort of gasp. I imagine they probably don’t necessarily need to rely on that burst of air because they’ll take a purposeful deep breath before heading into the fray.
That being said, I think professionals do still gasp. It’s probably just not something one’s brain really catches onto. But it is a startle reflex - so if a surgeon is squirted in the face with blood, if there’s a close call with a firefighter, if a cop walks up to a car and has a gun out under their chin… I imagine each of these will get a little gasp at the very least.
Do babies gasp? I feel like I’ve seen them make surprised faces but not gasp, or maybe baby gasps are quieter?
They do.
If I’m startled, like a jump-scare or something, I’ll likely gasp, but if I see a car accident or someone falling or something explode, I’m far more likely to say “Oh shit” than gasp.
On a semi-related note, I really hate the people (mostly women, sorry ladies, and I say this as a woman myself) who scream when something bad happens, but the bad thing didn’t happen directly to them, they are just witnessing the bad thing. And they scream anyway. I hate that shit.
I think it’s some animal instinct thing leftover from our primitive days that’s supposed to draw attention to the bad thing? But at this point in our evolution it just feels like that person is drawing attention to themselves and away from the actual issue.
Especially the people who scream for multiple breaths. I cannot help but to think, “uhhh, has your simple mind not caught up to the situation, yet!?”. Ridiculous.
What made me start thinking this was watching a lady film a boat going nuts in a marina trying to run over a guy in a seadoo and crashing into parked boats. She seems to be pretty far away from danger but keeps gasping and screaming with every hit.
You’re right about the screaming detracting from the real issue though, especially if there is already a group of witnesses and you hear blood curdling screams while someone gets knocked out and then the inevitable person running in to dribble the victim’s head to really make sure the spinal cord has separated.
Nice username, and props for going down with the ship on that instance
I completely forgot lemm.ee was getting shut down, nice username to you too Trick
I have a nice overexaggerated gasp I break out when the need arises yeah I was a theater kid why do you ask
Do you mean audibly gasping?
I have literally never gasped in my life but I’ve seen people do it, so I guess it’s real
Had to think on it! Yeah, I do gasp, but only when surprised and only a quick intake, pretty quiet.
