Abstract
A former study with scenarios conducted in Hawaii has suggested that humans share with non-human mammals the same basic defensive strategies - risk assessment, freezing, defensive threat, defensive attack, and flight. The selection of the most adaptive strategy is strongly influenced by features of the threat stimulus - magnitude, escapability, distance, ambiguity, and availability of a hiding place. Aiming at verifying if these strategies would be consistent in a different culture, 12 defensive scenarios were translated into Portuguese and adapted to the Brazilian culture. The sample consisted of male and female undergraduate students divided into two groups: 76 students, who evaluated the five dimensions of each scenario and 248 medical students, who chose the most likely response for each scenario. In agreement with the findings from studies of non-human mammal species, the scenarios were able to elicit different defensive behavioral responses, depending on features of the threat. "Flight" was chosen as the most likely response in scenarios evaluated as an unambiguous and intense threat, but with an available route of escape, whereas "attack" was chosen in an unambiguous, intense and close dangerous situation without an escape route. Less urgent behaviors, such as "check out", were chosen in scenarios evaluated as less intense, more distant and more ambiguous. Moreover, the results from the Brazilian sample were similar to the results obtained in the original study with Hawaiian students. These data suggest that a basic repertoire of defensive strategies is conserved along the mammalian evolution because they share similar functional benefits in maintaining fitness.
Highlights
According to the evolutionary theory of natural selection, the human species, like others, has been submitted to similar sources of natural selection that affected its evolution and shares with mammals a similar evolutionary history [1,2]
Post hoc analyses showed that the scenarios grouped in different clusters were placed along the continuum of each dimension
The situations presented in the 12 scenarios adapted to the Brazilian population were able to elicit different defensive responses, depending on features of the threat stimuli that are supposed to influence the choice of the defensive behavioral strategy
Summary
According to the evolutionary theory of natural selection, the human species, like others, has been submitted to similar sources of natural selection that affected its evolution and shares with mammals a similar evolutionary history [1,2]. According to this view, basic emotions have been shaped by evolution to support decision-making processes aimed at the fulfillment of critical adaptive needs [3,4]. Emotional responses are mediated by unconscious information processing that allows fast reactions, highly adapted to the threatening context [5,6]. The essentially modern human body form with elongated hind limbs dates from the Plio-Pleis-
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