This is just me pulling an answer out of my ass, but since it happens when we're surprised, it's probably the body reflexively taking in air so it's prepared to deal with the surprise. Which could involve fighting, running, yelling, or holding your breath for a while.
this post was submitted on 29 Jun 2025
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I feel like people trained for emergencies/high stress situations like police, military, mma fighters, even medics are less likely to gasp whereas a defenseless 95 year old woman would be more likely to gasp.
So is gasping a bad defense mechanism or why would we want to have less of a reflexive response in tense situations?
I think those people are just less surprised when something happens. I don't think they are unlearning how to gasp, but it takes a bit more to trigger it in someone who's already seen worse than the rest of us want to imagine.
So would it be more beneficial to not gasp? Or gasp less at least?
Probably not necessarily? Evolution does kind of a bad job at doing things that are beneficial, it just does things that half work some of the time, or does things at random that don't really hurt us, or does things at random that do hurt us but don't cause us to instantly drop dead as soon as we're born.
This feels to me like a thing that half works some of the time. Raw speculation here, but gasping could be to get a bit of oxygen to deal with a dangerous situation, but evolution equated danger with the unexpected so some of us just reflexively gasp when there's something unexpected. Or maybe it's something else, who knows.
Similar to above commenter, I'm just flinging poo, but
Those who are trained in the tougher situations are, I imagine, more desensitized and therefore don't do the egads! sort of gasp. I imagine they probably don't necessarily need to rely on that burst of air because they'll take a purposeful deep breath before heading into the fray.
That being said, I think professionals do still gasp. It's probably just not something one's brain really catches onto. But it is a startle reflex - so if a surgeon is squirted in the face with blood, if there's a close call with a firefighter, if a cop walks up to a car and has a gun out under their chin.... I imagine each of these will get a little gasp at the very least.
Do babies gasp? I feel like I've seen them make surprised faces but not gasp, or maybe baby gasps are quieter?
They do.
Yes, babies gasp. When my child was a baby, cold water (condensation dripping off a cup) made them gasp.
I have some experience in the ballpark of what you're referring to and would say it's somewhat situational: For example, I never used to think twice about joggers but after I started doing Muay Thai every time I hear footsteps closing in fast behind me I get an adrenaline dump.
One time I almost decked a jogger who passed real close, but as I was pivoting to bob, jab, and jump back outside of their range, I actually saw them and my hand went from a fist to a wave. I don't think they even realized what almost happened, but I felt so fucking stupid.
I even quit wearing headphones when going for walks to prevent getting startled like that, but I guess the flip side is that I'm more difficult to jump now (which was kind of the goal of learning MT in the first place).
First responder training/experience can also make you hypervigilant when it comes to certain things, so I think it's more fair to say, it just changes what can provoke the gasp/startle response.
If I'm startled, like a jump-scare or something, I'll likely gasp, but if I see a car accident or someone falling or something explode, I'm far more likely to say "Oh shit" than gasp.
On a semi-related note, I really hate the people (mostly women, sorry ladies, and I say this as a woman myself) who scream when something bad happens, but the bad thing didn't happen directly to them, they are just witnessing the bad thing. And they scream anyway. I hate that shit.
I think it's some animal instinct thing leftover from our primitive days that's supposed to draw attention to the bad thing? But at this point in our evolution it just feels like that person is drawing attention to themselves and away from the actual issue.
Especially the people who scream for multiple breaths. I cannot help but to think, "uhhh, has your simple mind not caught up to the situation, yet!?". Ridiculous.
What made me start thinking this was watching a lady film a boat going nuts in a marina trying to run over a guy in a seadoo and crashing into parked boats. She seems to be pretty far away from danger but keeps gasping and screaming with every hit.
You're right about the screaming detracting from the real issue though, especially if there is already a group of witnesses and you hear blood curdling screams while someone gets knocked out and then the inevitable person running in to dribble the victim's head to really make sure the spinal cord has separated.
I have a nice overexaggerated gasp I break out when the need arises yeah I was a theater kid why do you ask
Gasping exists as a universal reflex in at least certain cases, like jumping into frigid water. Dunno about other cases
Had to think on it! Yeah, I do gasp, but only when surprised and only a quick intake, pretty quiet.
Nice username, and props for going down with the ship on that instance
I completely forgot lemm.ee was getting shut down, nice username to you too Trick
I have literally never gasped in my life but I've seen people do it, so I guess it's real
Do you mean audibly gasping?