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Why do we get goosebumps? | Fun body facts for curious kids · The Curious Kidcast | Fun Facts and Curious Questions

0:00
Hey there, curious minds. Have you ever been listening to
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your absolute favorite song and suddenly felt your arms go all
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weird and bumpy? Or maybe you stepped out of a
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nice warm bath and your skin turned into what looks like,
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well, chicken skin? Today we're diving into one of
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the strangest things your body does.
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Goosebumps. Why does your skin suddenly
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decide to pretend it's a pluck chicken?
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What do geese have to do with anything?
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And wait until you hear about the connection between your arm
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bumps and woolly mammoths. Trust me, this gets wild.
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Stick around, because by the end of this episode, you'll never
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look at your arms the same way again.
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Curious kid cast? Here we go.
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Questions poppin. Minds will blow.
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Big ideas. They're taking flight.
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Let's explore. Feel the line.
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Why, what, where and how. Big answers.
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We'll find them now. Curious minds.
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The world will come. Ask away.
1:00
Let's bring it home. Welcome to the Curious Kid Cast,
1:08
where we answer the biggest questions from the most curious
1:11
kids. I'm your host, Andy, And today's
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question comes from Archie in Blackburn, England.
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Archie wrote to us because he was watching a scary movie with
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his older brother. And right at the jump scare
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moment, he looked down at his arms and they were covered in
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tiny bumps. Archie wanted to know why.
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Why does our body do this weird bumpy thing?
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Great question. Let's figure this out together.
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So First things first, picture this.
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You're outside on a freezing cold morning, the kind of cold
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that makes your nose feel like it might fall off suddenly.
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Whoosh. Your arms get all prickly and
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bumpy. You rush back inside, warm up by
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the heater, and slowly the bumps disappear like they were never
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there. Now, here's the thing that's
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going to blow your mind. Your body didn't mess up.
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It didn't glitch like a video game.
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It did exactly what it was designed to do.
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The problem is, what it was designed to do made a lot more
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sense about 50,000 years ago. To understand Goosebumps, we
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need to hop in our imaginary time machine and zoom way, way
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back to when humans looked very different from how we look now.
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close your eyes for a second and imagine an early human from
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thousands of years ago. They didn't have cozy winter
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coats, no fluffy blankets, no heated houses.
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What they did have was hair. Lots and lots of hair.
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Not quite as much as a gorilla or a bear, but way more than
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you've got right now. Like, if you saw one of your
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ancestors walking down the street today, you'd probably
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think they were wearing a very questionable fur outfit.
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And here's the cool part. Every single hair on their body,
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from their head to their toes, sat on top of a tiny, tiny
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muscle. This muscle has the most
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fantastic name. Are you ready?
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It's called the Erector Peeli muscle.
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Say it with me. Erector Peeli.
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It sounds like a spell from a wizard book, doesn't it?
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Like something you'd shout while waving A wand around.
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Erector Peeli. This muscle is so small you
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can't see it without a microscope.
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But when it tightens up, it pulls your hair straight up like
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a tiny soldier standing at attention.
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When millions of these muscles all tighten at the same time,
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your skin gets that bumpy, prickly look.
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But why would your body want to make your hair stand up?
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I mean, it's not like your hair has anywhere important to be.
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Here's the secret Standing up hair makes you warmer.
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When your hair lifts up, it traps a thin layer of air right
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next to your skin. This layer works like
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insulation, like a warm air blanket wrapped around your
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body. Lots of animals still use this
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trick today. Cats fluff up in winter and look
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like furry balloons. Honestly, a cold cat looks like
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someone inflated it with a bicycle pump.
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Birds puff out their feathers and suddenly look twice as fat,
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which must be embarrassing for them, but at least they're warm.
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Squirrels look super round and fluffy when it's cold outside,
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they basically turn into tennis balls with tails.
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Even some fish can do something similar with their scales, which
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is honestly pretty weird when you think about it.
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Like, you're already in water fish, what are you worried
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about? So when your ancestors got cold,
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their bodies created this fluffy layer to keep warm.
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The problem is, you still have this system today, but you don't
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have nearly enough fur to make it useful.
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Goosebumps are basically a leftover superpower that humans
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don't really use anymore. Your body is still trying its
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best, bless it, but it's fighting a losing battle against
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evolution. But wait, there's more.
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Because goosebumps don't only show up when you're cold, they
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can also appear when you're scared, shocked, or suddenly
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alert. Even if the temperature is
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perfectly comfortable, you could be sitting in a warm room,
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eating a sandwich and suddenly, boom, goosebumps.
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So what's that all about? Let's jump back in our time
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machine again. Imagine you're an early human
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walking through tall grass. Suddenly you hear a low growl.
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A really, really terrifying growl.
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The kind that makes your stomach drop and your brain go Nope,
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don't like that. Not one bit.
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In a split second, your brain leaps into emergency mode.
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Your heart starts pounding like a drum at a rock concert.
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Your eyes go wide, Your muscles tighten up.
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You start breathing faster. This is called the fight or
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flight response. Basically, your body's way of
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saying danger. Something bad might happen.
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Get ready to either punch something or run away really,
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really fast. And guess what happens to your
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hair? It stands straight up.
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Now you might be thinking, Andy, how does prickly hair help me
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run away from a lion? That seems completely useless.
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Good question, imaginary listener.
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In my head the answer is it makes you look bigger, which
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sounds ridiculous but hear me out.
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Loads of animals use this trick to scare off predators.
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Cats arch their backs and puff up their tails to look more
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intimidating. They go from cute fluffy Kitty
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to I am a dangerous beast fear me in about half a second.
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Porcupines raise their quills like 1000 tiny Spears, which is
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a much better defense system than ours.
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To be fair, birds fluff up their feathers during fights.
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It's nature's way of saying back off.
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I'm bigger than you think, even though everyone can clearly see
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that you're not actually bigger, you just look puffy.
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Early humans did this too. When they got frightened, their
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hair would lift up to make them look larger and scarier.
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It might have actually worked to scare off wolves or other
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predators. Maybe.
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We'll never know for sure, but let's give them the benefit of
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the doubt. Today.
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Your hair still tries to do this when you're scared, but since
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we're way less hairy than our ancestors, it doesn't make us
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look scary at all. It just gives us goosebumps.
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So basically, your body is still trying to puff you up like a
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scared cat, but you don't have enough fur for anyone to notice.
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Your body is doing its best. OK?
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Don't be mean to it. It's working with limited
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resources here. It's like trying to build a
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pillow for it with only one tiny cushion.
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The effort is there, the results are just not impressive.
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Now here comes the really weird type of goosebump.
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The kind that shows up when something feels powerful,
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beautiful, or super emotional. Like when you hear an amazing
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song that gives you shivers, or a dramatic moment in a movie
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that makes your skin tingle. Or when someone hits a super
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long super high note that seems to go on forever and you're
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like, how are their lungs even working right now?
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Or watching fireworks explode across the night sky.
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Or that moment in a story when everything suddenly makes sense
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and you go, whoa, I did not see that coming.
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Your arm is basically gasping out loud.
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Why would your skin react like that?
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What is feeling emotional have to do with cold weather or scary
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predators? It's not like a beautiful song
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is trying to eat you. Well, scientists think emotional
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goosebumps happened for two big reasons.
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First, the surprise factor. Your brain absolutely loves
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patterns. It's always looking for them,
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expecting them, predicting what comes next.
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Your brain is basically a pattern finding machine that
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never turns off. When something breaks a pattern
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in a dramatic or surprising way, your brain gets this little jolt
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of excitement. And that sudden feeling can
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trigger the same tiny muscles that cause regular goosebumps.
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So yes, your skin can actually be surprised your arm just went
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whoa. Plot twist.
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The second reason is that powerful emotions activate old
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survival systems in your brain. A long time ago, strong feelings
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helped humans survive. Joy, fear, sadness, excitement,
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they all signalled important moments like hey, this Berry
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made me happy, I should remember where this Bush is, or that
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rustling sound made me terrified.
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Avoid this area forever. Goosebumps still show up when
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your body experiences something intense.
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It's like your body tapping you on the shoulder and saying, hey,
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pay attention, something important is happening right
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now. I don't know what it is, but it
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feels significant, so I'm going to make your arms bumpy about
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it. Some people call these emotional
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goosebumps, chills, or shivers. Scientists have a fancy French
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word for them, free song. It basically means good shiver,
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which is a much cooler way to say it.
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Honestly, the French have a way of making everything sound
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fancy. Next time you get goosebumps
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from a song, you can tell your friends, oh I'm just
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experiencing some free song. They'll either think you're very
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sophisticated or they'll think you sneezed.
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Weird. Could go either way.
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So who's actually in charge of making goosebumps happen?
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Who's the boss giving all the orders?
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Is there a tiny manager in your brain with a clipboard going
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goosebumps on arms activate? Well, sort of.
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There's a tiny part of your brain called the hypothalamus.
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It's about the size of an almond, which is quite small
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when you think about how much work it does.
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The hypothalamus is in charge of keeping everything balanced.
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Your temperature, your hunger, your emotions, your sleep, and
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dozens of other things. It's basically the control tower
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of your body. Air traffic control, but for
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your insides. When the hypothalamus senses
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cold, fear, excitement, or surprise, it sends a message
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zooming through your nerves to all those tiny erectopili
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muscles we talked about earlier. And boom, goosebumps appear.
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In a way, goosebumps are like a text message from your brain,
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written right on your skin. Even our closest animal
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relatives still use goosebumps. Chimpanzees puff up their hair
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during fights or scary moments to look bigger and more
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intimidating, which must look pretty impressive when you're
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covered in thick hair. Watching how animals use this
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trick help scientists understand that human goosebumps are
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basically leftover behavior from a time when we needed them way
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more than we do now. We're all walking around with
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this ancient alarm system that's still going off even though the
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emergency ended about 50,000 years ago.
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But here's something that might surprise you.
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Even though goosebumps seem like an old, useless reaction,
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scientists have discovered they still do something kind of
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important. Are you ready for this?
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Those little muscles that cause goosebumps are actually
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connected to special stem cells in your skin, the cells that
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help grow new hair. When the muscles tighten and
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create goosebumps, they wake up these stem cells, which can help
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repair your skin or grow new hair.
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So every time you get goosebumps, you're basically
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giving your skin a tiny workout. It's like your body is gently
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tapping your skin, saying wake up, time to do some repairs.
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So maybe goosebumps aren't completely pointless after all.
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They're like that weird kitchen gadget your parents have that
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only does one very specific thing, but when you need it, you
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really need it. All right, let's rapid fire
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through some strange and fun goosebump facts that you can use
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to absolutely amaze your friends at lunch tomorrow.
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Or confuse them. Probably confuse them, to be
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honest. So here's a weird one.
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Goosebumps can happen on almost any part of your body except
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your face and palms. You cannot get goosebumps on
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your nose, lips, or the bottom of your feet.
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Scientists aren't entirely sure why, but it probably has to do
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with the type of skin in those places.
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So don't bother trying to give yourself face goosebumps.
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It won't work, trust me. Well, don't actually trust me
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because I haven't tried it, but I'm pretty confident based on
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the science. Oh, and you know where the name
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Goosebumps actually comes from? It's from how a goose looks
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after its feathers are plucked out.
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Not a very pretty image, I'll admit.
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Definitely not something you want to think about during
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dinner, but it's definitely accurate.
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Your skin looks bumpy and weird, just like a plucked goose.
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Some people call them goose pimples instead, which somehow
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sounds even weirder, like your arm has caught some kind of
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goose disease. Sorry, can't come to school
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today. I've got the goose pimples.
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Here's a strange one. Some people get goosebumps only
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on one arm or one leg. Their nerves fire slightly
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differently on each side of their body.
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So if you're one of these people, you're not broken,
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you're just unique. Embrace your one armed
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goosebumps. You're special.
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You're like a goosebump Unicorn. Actually, that's a terrible
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image. Forget I said that.
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Oh, this one's wild. Sometimes fear doesn't just
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cause goosebumps, it can make your hair literally stand
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straight up like you stuck your finger in an electrical socket.
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There are actual photographs of people with completely vertical
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hair after sudden shocks. It looks absolutely ridiculous
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but also kind of amazing. Like they got a surprise haircut
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from a very confused Barber. And here's a cool one that I
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think is actually kind of beautiful.
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Goosebumps can appear as part of a chain reaction.
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If you're in an audience watching something emotional
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like a really good concert or a powerful speech, and everyone
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around you gets chills at the same moment, it's because human
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emotions can actually sync up. We're like Goosebumps, Domino's.
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One person gets them, and suddenly the whole crowd is
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covered in bumps. It's like a wave at a sports
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stadium, except it's happening on everyone's skin, which is
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either really cool or slightly creepy, depending on how you
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think about it. So let's answer the massive
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question that's probably bouncing around in your head
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right now. If humans don't actually need
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goosebumps anymore, why do we still have them?
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Why didn't they just disappear? Why are we still walking around
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with this useless, bumpy skin situation?
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There are three main reasons. First, evolution is incredibly
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slow. Like really really slow.
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Slower than your little brother getting ready for school.
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Traits don't just vanish overnight because we don't need
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them anymore. Humans still have loads of
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leftover body parts that don't do much.
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We have wisdom teeth that mostly just cause problems and require
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expensive dental surgery. We have an appendix that just
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sits there doing basically nothing until one day it decides
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to explode, which is rude. We have tailbones even though we
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definitely don't have tails, which is disappointing by the
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way tails would be useful. We even have hiccups, which are
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apparently a leftover from when our ancient ancestors were
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amphibians. Goosebumps are part of our
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evolutionary backpack. All the things we carry from the
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past that don't necessarily help us now, but also don't hurt us
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enough for evolution to bother getting rid of them.
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Evolution looks at Goosebumps and goes, eh, they're not
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causing any problems, we'll deal with it later.
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And then later never comes because evolution doesn't have a
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planner. Second reason?
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Goosebumps still help your body react to strong feelings.
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Humans are incredibly emotional creatures.
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We feel things deeply. We cry at movies, we laugh at
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videos of cats falling off things We get excited about new
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episodes of our favorite shows, and Goosebumps might actually
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help us experience powerful moments more fully.
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They're like a physical reminder that something important is
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happening. Your body is putting a little
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flag on the moment saying Remember this.
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And third, they do still have some small uses.
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They activate those skin cells we mentioned.
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They help regulate temperature just a tiny bit, and they might
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even help with hair growth. So even though they're ancient,
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goosebumps aren't totally useless.
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They're just mostly useless, which is different.
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Like a pocket on a shirt that's too small to fit anything useful
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in. It's there, it's doing
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something, you're just not entirely sure what.
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Here's one of the coolest things about Goosebumps, and this is
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something I think about a lot. They show your emotions on the
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outside of your body. Think about it when you get
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goosebumps, your brain is responding to something.
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Your nerves are firing signals. Your skin is reacting.
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Your body is communicating without you saying a single
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word. It's like your arm is having its
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own conversation with the world. Goosebumps are like a little
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whisper from the inside of your body saying, hey, something
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interesting is happening right now.
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They remind you that you're full of surprises, old instincts, and
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hidden superpowers that connect you to humans who lived
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thousands and thousands of years before you were even born.
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Every tiny bump on your arm is a link to your ancient ancestors
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and the absolutely wild story of human evolution.
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You're basically carrying around a piece of prehistory on your
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skin, which is pretty cool when you think about it.
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You're a walking museum, so the next time you're listening to an
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amazing song or watching fireworks light up the sky, or
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stepping into the cold and you feel your skin start to prickle,
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smile. Because your body is doing
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something that humans have been doing for hundreds of thousands
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of years. Your ancient relatives got
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goosebumps too, and now you know exactly why.
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But before we wrap up today's episode, it's time for the
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Curious Kid Cast quiz. I'm going to ask you 3 questions
17:24
about goosebumps and I want you to shout out your answer.
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Don't worry, I can't actually hear you, but shouting at your
17:30
device is fun anyway. Your parents might think you've
17:32
lost it, but that's OK. Science is worth looking a
17:35
little silly for. Ready.
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Let's go question one. What's the name of the tiny
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muscle that makes your hair stand up and creates goosebumps?
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Is it A the bicep muscle, B the erector Pele muscle, or C the
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goosebump muscle? The answer is B the erector
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pelee muscle. If you got that right, give
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yourself a high 5. Seriously, high 5 the air right
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now. If you got it wrong, that's OK
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because now you'll never forget it.
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A rector pelee It sounds like a magical spell.
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Question 2 Can you get goosebumps on your nose?
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Yes or no? The answer is no, you cannot get
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goosebumps on your face, including your nose, or on the
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palms of your hands or soles of your feet.
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The skin there is just built differently.
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It didn't get the goosebump memo.
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So if someone tells you they got goosebumps on their nose,
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they're either confused or maybe they're a medical mystery.
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Question three. What's the fancy French word
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that scientists use for the good shivers you get from emotional
18:43
moments like hearing beautiful music?
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The answer is frisson. Use that word this week and see
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if anyone knows what you're talking about.
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If they don't, you can explain it to them and sound incredibly
18:58
smart. If they do know what it means,
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you found a fellow science nerd. Make friends with them
19:03
immediately. All right, curious minds.
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That's it for today's episode. I hope you learned something
19:09
cool about why your skin does that weird bumpy thing.
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And I hope the next time you get goosebumps, you think about tiny
19:16
muscles and ancient humans and evolution and all the wild
19:19
science happening right there on your arm.
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If you have a question you'd like answered on the show, head
19:25
over to our website at curiouskidcast.com and send it
19:29
our way. And if you enjoyed today's
19:31
episode, share it with a friend who loves learning weird facts
19:34
about the human body, or share it with someone who gets
19:37
goosebumps a lot and has no idea why.
19:39
Subscribe so you never miss an episode, because we've got loads
19:43
more curious questions coming your way.
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And I'll catch you next time on the Curious Kid Cast where we
19:48
answer the questions that make you think, laugh, and see the
19:52
world in a whole new way. Keep being curious, keep asking
19:55
questions, and keep noticing all the weird and wonderful things
19:58
your body does. Hey, let your questions rise.
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Lift them up to the endless sky. Everyone is as far so bright,
20:10
curious, kick ass, ignite the light.