{"id":54343,"date":"2021-11-15T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-11-15T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?p=54343"},"modified":"2021-11-16T17:02:49","modified_gmt":"2021-11-16T21:02:49","slug":"instinctive-reaction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/instinctive-reaction\/","title":{"rendered":"The Instinctive Reaction Tendency\u2014Explained"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>What is the instinctive reaction tendency? How do you keep calm in stressful situations?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The instinctive reaction tendency is the inclination to react without thinking during stressful situations leading to ill-informed <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/integrative-decision-making\/\">decision making<\/a>. You can control the tendency by keeping calm during stressful situations and recognizing that you still have some time to think methodically before making a decision.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Read on to learn more about the instinctive reaction tendency.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>What It Is<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Stress prompts faster and more extreme reactions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Light stress can slightly improve performance, such as on tests.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Why It Evolved<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>When a tiger jumps at you, you don\u2019t want to be sitting and thinking about what to do. The instinctive reaction tendency evolved because you want to react quickly, even automatically, to resolve the situation. Normal stressful situations fall on that spectrum of stress.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>How It Can Be Harmful<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>The instinctive reaction tendency causes you to rely on faulty heuristics rather than methodical thinking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Stress amplifies other biases:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/social-proof-examples-cialdini\/\">Social proof<\/a> tendency: there\u2019s no time to think, do what everyone else does.<\/li><li>Deprival superreaction: my stuff is being taken away! Quick, attack.<\/li><li>Reciprocation, Kantian fairness, Disliking\/hating tendency: as in road rage\u2014someone\u2019s acting unfairly and taking away my time; I hate this person; I want to unleash my fury on this person; I\u2019m stressed and I don\u2019t have time to ponder whether this is a good idea.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Extreme, prolonged stress can lead to mental breakdowns and a persistent rewiring of the brain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Examples<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>The scientist Pavlov experimented with stress in dogs. He would put a dog in a cage and flood the cage until there was barely any air left, imposing a great amount of stress. This caused a prolonged behavior change where the dogs started disliking the handlers. Repeated exposure to stress caused a persistent change in behavior.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Interestingly, he couldn\u2019t reverse a breakdown except by reimposing stress.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>There might be an association between <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/what-does-mentally-strong-mean\/\">mental strength<\/a> and strength of rewiring: the dogs that were hardest to break down were also the hardest to return to their pre-breakdown state.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Antidotes<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>During a stressful period, you can control your instinctive reaction by trying to maintain your calm. Think about how much time you have to react and what happens if you don\u2019t act before then. You may have more time to think than you expected.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When you\u2019re calm, use checklists to think through your decisions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What is the instinctive reaction tendency? How do you keep calm in stressful situations? The instinctive reaction tendency is the inclination to react without thinking during stressful situations leading to ill-informed decision making. You can control the tendency by keeping calm during stressful situations and recognizing that you still have some time to think methodically before making a decision. Read on to learn more about the instinctive reaction tendency.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":54345,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[34,9],"tags":[533],"class_list":["post-54343","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-communication","category-psychology","tag-poor-charlies-almanack","","tg-column-two"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v24.3 (Yoast SEO v24.3) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>The Instinctive Reaction Tendency\u2014Explained - Shortform Books<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The instinctive reaction tendency causes us to react without thinking during stressful situations. Here is how to control the tendency.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/instinctive-reaction\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Instinctive Reaction Tendency\u2014Explained\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The instinctive reaction tendency causes us to react without thinking during stressful situations. Here is how to control the tendency.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/instinctive-reaction\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Shortform Books\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-11-15T12:00:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2021-11-16T21:02:49+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/wordpress.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/stress.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"910\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"607\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Joseph Adebisi\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Joseph Adebisi\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/instinctive-reaction\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/instinctive-reaction\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Joseph Adebisi\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/d8daf45671a09e8745a7a9f50a03b2a0\"},\"headline\":\"The Instinctive Reaction Tendency\u2014Explained\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-11-15T12:00:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-11-16T21:02:49+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/instinctive-reaction\/\"},\"wordCount\":410,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/instinctive-reaction\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/stress.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Poor Charlie&#039;s Almanack\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Communication\",\"Psychology\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/instinctive-reaction\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/instinctive-reaction\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/instinctive-reaction\/\",\"name\":\"The Instinctive Reaction Tendency\u2014Explained - Shortform Books\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/instinctive-reaction\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/instinctive-reaction\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/stress.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-11-15T12:00:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-11-16T21:02:49+00:00\",\"description\":\"The instinctive reaction tendency causes us to react without thinking during stressful situations. 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