8 Sep 2024

The myth of “fight or flight”

From Sunday Morning, 10:10 am on 8 September 2024
Fight. Seagull (Larus sp) facing Hooded Crow (Corvus cornix). Slovakia (Photo by Ervin Horesnyik / Biosphoto / Biosphoto via AFP)

Photo: ERVIN HORESNYIK

Lisa Feldman Barrett is professor of psychology at Northeastern University and author of How Emotions Are Made: The Secret Life of the Brain.

In a recent Scientific American article, she asked whether the brain's much-touted "fight or flight" function is a myth.

She decided, ultimately, that its primary job is to reduce uncertainty in an ever-changing world.