What’s the ‘Lump’ in your throat before you start to cry?
In: Biology
What you feel is a tightening of your vocal cords to signal supplication and submission. It raises the pitch of your voice and signals that you are not a threat while also inviting pity and help from others.
Actually, the pitch of your voice changes regularly depending on your social environment. The autonomic nervous system varies how tight your vocal cords are depending on whether you are speaking to a subordinate or dominant person. In our evolutionary past, using higher-pitched vocalizations when around the alpha male might keep him from seeing us as a threat and killing us.
Regarding Other Comments: The lump in your throat is NOT just sympathetic nervous system activation to open your airways as other comments say. If it was, you would experience the same lump when you were really angry, or during vigorous exercise, etc, which doesn’t happen. Yes, it can accompany the fight-or-flight response, but not always.
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