What makes you a coward

The strategy is subject to cost-benefit analysis of the evolutionary kind: which trait increases my chances of survival or my chances to reproduce? What would be most adaptive is switching from one response to the other, depending the situation, but our underlying biology cannot switch back and forth that quickly, Penke says.

Individual fight or flight strategies often align with personality, especially the ability to brush off social rejection. In a study from , Penke and colleague Jaap Denissen, now at Tilberg University in The Netherlands, likened social navigation to surviving in the jungle — except here, fitting in enables survival while expulsion from the group is the social equivalent of death. The more a person can withstand social rejection, the more courageous she may be, but the more she risks exclusion.

In natural populations, we see a continuum of these traits, in part because of trade-offs to each. Maybe boldness is bad when it comes to survival, notes University of Illinois in Urbana biologist Alison Bell, but better in terms of finding mates.

In fact, the existence of a spectrum from cowardice to bravery helps a species survive. A left-handed pitcher in baseball will flourish specifically because there are so many right-handed pitchers. Likewise, some birds obtain food by hunting for it while others simply steal it from the hunters.

Those that steal need birds that will hunt, lest the thieves should have no one to rob. B rave people might be built differently, according to recent studies. It has made her absolutely fearless — a state especially pronounced because her rare condition, Urbach-Wiethe disease, had deposited calcium in her brain, causing lesions on both sides. In a study published in in the journal Current Biology , researchers exposed SM to live snakes and spiders, took her on a tour of a haunted house, and showed her emotionally evocative films; she was unwaveringly calm.

She also lacked fear in her day-to-day life, even when she was held up at gunpoint, then at knifepoint, and was almost killed during a domestic incident. This excessive response showed clearly that the amygdala is not the only part of the brain that processes fear. That made sense in light of findings, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in , showing that rodents could be rendered fearless when scientists neutralised a different part of the brain, the hypothalamus.

Human circuitry is much the same. SM sustained brain injury from a disease, but fear and fearlessness are often inborn. Earlier this year, scientists at the Stanford University school of medicine found that some people might have a propensity for anxiety, depending on how their amygdala had developed during childhood.

In the study, which appeared in the June issue of Biological Psychiatry , researchers recruited 76 children aged between seven and nine, a time when anxiety-related traits first begin to appear. Scanning their brains with magnetic resonance imaging MRI , the researchers found that children with high levels of anxiety had larger amygdalas and increased connectivity between brain regions responsible for attention, emotion perception, and regulation. Environment plays a role, too. Someone exposed to violence or abuse is likely to respond to danger differently from someone who has not.

Two months later, when the bullied mice were adults, they themselves were more aggressive and prone to violence. How we respond to fear is actually a complicated algorithm involving our biology and our experience.

I finally took the car to a mechanic and explained that I wanted it checked for a tracking GPS — maybe the killers were on my trail. He had five guys look at the car and they found nothing.

I was relieved and thought I might finally get some sleep. They probably followed us out there the old-fashioned way. The following day, the detectives investigating the threat called the local police near our country home to ask them to keep an eye on our property.

That night, someone banged loudly on the door. I spotted a badge through the window. My heart was pounding. I associated those lights with blood and murder, not security.

Getting overly ready is a result of fear. Should you prepare? Of course! The more they fear, the more a coward will try to do. The more they try to do, the more they have to think about. They have more meetings, more calls to make, more emails to read and send, and more commitments to obsess over.

Once they actually let go of some of the fear, they can free up the time to do the things that truly inspire and invigorate them. Cowards use drama to distract others from the fact that they need to step up, apologise and take responsibility.

Sympathy points are the coward currency and they want to make you pay. Blaming someone else puts them in the position of a victim who is not in control. This is an energy-draining, counterproductive way of dealing with difficult circumstances. Cowards only see information that agrees with their beliefs.

Cowards have good imaginations, imaginations that torment them with all the worst stuff of nightmare, all the horrors that could befall them. This provides an excellent arsenal when it comes to inflicting misery on others. They understand the fears of their victim better than the victim does himself.

When someone blame-shifts, there is an understandable temptation to explain yourself, defend your name, and prove your point. However, the problem is that this is exactly what a coward wants you to do. By sucking you into these arguments, they are consuming your energy and watching you progressively self-destruct, so they can use your reactions to prove their own points. If you are dealing with a coward, you can walk away.

In fact, calming stating you are no longer interested in playing this game, taking your bat and ball and leaving is the most powerful thing you can do. If you are struggling with courage in decision-making, there is a quick go-to that might help you.

Instead of making a decision and putting your time and energy into what you need to do, you tend to put all of your energy into worrying. You feel trapped, powerless and hopeless to improve your situation, when in reality, not making a decision — is also a decision.

Love based decisions are about going after what we want. They are based on knowing and accepting that failing is not the end of the world. Is this what I truly want or am I just trying to keep certain people happy? Choosing love over fear takes practice. It takes awareness, courage, strength, and persistence. It takes all of the things you already have, and it will make this entire world a better place! If you choose to evolve, you will connect with the strength within you, you will explore what lies outside the comfort zone, you will awaken to love, you will become, you will be.

You have everything you need. Choose to evolve. Choose love. Begin typing your search term above and press enter to search. Press ESC to cancel. Skip to content Home Essay What makes a person a coward? Ben Davis May 4, What makes a person a coward? Is cowardice genetic? How do you overcome a coward? Is it bad to be a coward?

Is running away from a fight cowardly? Should you run from a fight? How can I be always brave? How can I be absolutely fearless? How can I be brave psychology? What does bravery symbolize?