Why do you get goosebumps when you are cold?

Answer 1

In layman's terms, when you're cold, the body tries to make a thicker layer of trapped air around your body to hold your body heat. The body does this by causing the hairs on your body to stand up and create this body heat trap. It probably worked better when we humans had more hair. Erector pillae, also called arrector pili, are the muscles that contract to cause your hair to stand up or "goose bumps."

It helps your hairs stand up on your skin so that the hair will make your body warmer.

Answer 2

I think that you get goose-bumps when you're scared or something. Some people get cold when they're scared. I think that's why. It's a genetic hold-over from a time when our bodies were covered with fur. When you got cold, it would automatically make the hairs on your body stand up to trap more air in the fur and make it a better insulator. Some people do get goose bumps when they're frightened, it's the the body trying to make itself look bigger to the enemy.

Answer 3

You get goosebumps when you're cold because the muscles that are in between your hairs in your skin tense. You know when you are cold, things contract. same with your muscles. So your tiny muscles that are attached to your hair on your skin contracts and pulls. which makes your skin have goosebumps.

Answer 4

When you get cold or chilly, you get goosebumps which actually is the act of your arm hairs sticking up to trap the heat that is on top of your skin. When it is trapped, it keeps your body warm. It is all enviormental adaptions I guess you could say.

Answer 5

Goosebumps are small lumps in which you get on your legs and arms. It happens when you're cold. Tiny muscles attached to the hairs flex and make the hairs stick up. This trap in the heat to make you warmer

Answer 6

its your body making hollow compartments under your skin to insulate yourself when its cold just like polar bears with their hollow hair fibers

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I think that more specifically, goosebumps are a throwback to when we were covered with fur, like polar bears in the example. But in modern man, the reaction is counter productive.

We get goosebumps when we are cold. If we were a polar bear that would make our fur stand on end, trap more air, achieve better insulation and we would become warmer. But in modern man, most of us have insufficient hair to do that job. Instead, the goosebumps increase our surface area and make us cool down more rapidly.

Somebody asked in the discussion why excitement causes goosebumps. I think this is because excitement and fear have the same primitive requirement: to make our hairs stand on end, to make us appear more scary to predators, as a warning to competitors (sexual competitors or otherwise), or perhaps more attractive to a potential mate. We talk about "bristling" when we get angry... surely it's this response.

Answer 7

When you get goosebumps you have little ponty dots.I hope i could help.

Answer 8

Animals with fur, when they get cold they raise the position of their hair to create a more insulating layer. With humans and our pathetic fur it rather seems like a wasted effort.

Answer 9

you get goosebumps when you are cold or sometimes scared but mostly when you are cold and they feel really bumpy.