Eli5: Why do people close their eyes when they hear loud sounds?
In: Other
Evolved response. Over the course of history, loud noises are often accompanied by fast flying debris. Think about the last million years of history that our ancestors lived through, 99.999% of which came before speakers and megaphones. Most of the loud bangs would have been nearby lightning impacts, rocks in your fire exploding etc.
Turns out that people who had the urge to duck and cover when they heard a boom were more likely to survive than those who didn’t flinch, which makes sense. That means a slight reproductive advantage. Repeat this over thousands of generations to the present day and here we are, all descended from the guys who ducked from loud noises.
TLDR: Even if the loud noise isn’t *always* dangerous, you still have better odds of living to reproduce if you recoil from loud bangs than if you don’t.
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