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And do geese get human bumps? But we digress, and idiotically too. We found several explanations of goose bumps, including those from Cool Quiz, Go Ask Alice, and Wikipedia. From these sources, we gathered that goose bumps arise when the body responds to cold by contracting arrector
pili muscles attached to the bottom of hair follicles. This causes hair to stand on end, trapping air and forming a layer of insulation, which creates heat -- an effective process in animals covered with fur, not to mention the Wolfman. But in non-cursed-by-a-gypsy humans, the reflex is strictly vestigial, left over from a time when we were much hairier and could use it to generate significant warmth. Goose bumps occur only in mammals, a taxonomic class to which silly geese do not belong. Birds do, however, undergo a similar process when they are cold, warming up by ruffling their feathers, so the term "goose bumps" is not totally out of order (plus they make your skin
look like a plucked goose). Cold is not the only stimulus that causes goose bumps in humans. Fear or other strong emotions can also trigger "piloerection." That's how biologists refer to goose bumps. But probably best to use the colloquial term. Especially if your name is Pilo.
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