The acute stress response that prepares the body to confront or flee from a perceived threat by activating the sympathetic nervous system.
Phrase coined by Walter Cannon in 1915. From Old English 'feohtan' (to fight) + 'fleogan' (to fly, flee).
Fight-or-flight is your body's emergency mode — heart races, muscles tense, senses sharpen. Your ancient brain is preparing you to battle or bolt!
Classic fight-or-flight model (Cannon, 1929) based primarily on male physiology. Women's stress response includes 'tend-and-befriend' (Taylor et al., 2000), historically omitted from popular psychology.
Use fight-or-flight for acute threat response; add tend-and-befriend when discussing chronic stress or social contexts. Avoid gendering either response.
["acute stress response","threat response"]
Shelley Taylor and colleagues restored women's stress neurobiology to scientific consciousness; their work corrected a 70-year blind spot.
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