EHAP Speaker Series: The Sound of Fear: A Journey from Mountain Marmots to Hollywood
Dan Blumstein, UCLA
What makes certain sounds scary? I will describe insights gained from over three decades of studying alarm calls and fear screams in marmots (which are large, mostly-alpine, ground squirrels) throughout the northern hemisphere. Fear screams are remarkably similar across taxa and they seem to be particularly evocative to many species. My studies of non-humans suggest that it is the noise and non-linearities in them that is what evokes negative emotions and heighted responses in those hearing them. I formalize this in ‘the non-linearity and fear hypothesis’ and discuss my tests of the hypothesis in studies of marmots, birds, film soundtracks, and humans. The sound of fear is non-linear.
Building: | East Hall |
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Event Type: | Presentation |
Tags: | Psychology |
Source: | Happening @ Michigan from Department of Psychology, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Neuroscience Graduate Student Organization, Evolution & Human Adaptations Program (EHAP) |