3 ms·

Panicking got us to escape lions and survive the evolutionary uphill, I wouldn't so hastily get rid of just yet.

• zamfi 6y ago
  Panic is great if you need to run or fight. Neither is much use on a plane with an engine on fire.
  • benburleson 6y ago
    Adrenaline can definitely be useful. Losing your wits under stress? Almost definitely not useful.
• dredmorbius 6y ago
  Panic as a herd response probably affords some group survival benefit, though it's of relatively little individual utility. The idea being that everyone starts acting unpredictably. When you're being chased by large predators (or a sudden rockfall, tidal wave, fire, etc.), that may be useful. When you're in a highly technical environment in which the entire group's survival is a unitary phenomenon (everybody's, or overall, survival either does or does not happen), everyone going their own way is precisely the wrong thing to do. That's a relatively new development evolutionarily.