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Background

The fight-or-flight response is generally regarded as the prototypic human response to stress. First described by Walter Cannon in 1932, the fightor-flight response is characterized physiologically by sympathetic nervous system activation that innervates the adrenal medulla, producing a hormonal cascade that results in the secretion of catecholamines, especially norepinephrine and epinephrine, into the bloodstream. In addition to its physiological concomitants, fight-or-flight has been adopted as a metaphor for human behavioral responses to stress, and whether a human (or an animal) fights or flees in response to sympathetic arousal is thought to depend on the nature of the stressor. If the organism sizes up a threat or predator and determines that it has a realistic chance of overcoming the predator, then attack is likely. In circumstances in which the threat is perceived to be more formidable, flight is …