Over the past couple of weeks I’ve had a more than a few questions about shouting, screaming and making noise when you’re assaulted. They normally come from “untrained” individuals who are looking for simple and direct, non-physical solutions to violence which will work in all situations – unfortunately there are no simple, catch all solutions that will work against all types of physical assault.

There’s a huge difference between a barking dog and a growling one. Barking will normally precede growling, as it is used a call for other members of the pack to come to its assistance; if no other pack members come then a dog will start to growl, basically saying that it understands that it is on its own and has to deal with the situation alone and by itself. Not all noise is the same. When somebody screams in surprise, they are making both an involuntary call for help, and attempting to create a “startle” reflex in the person that surprised them – one of the first fear responses we develop is flinching at loud noises (this is the reason that new born babies used to be swaddled – so that if they were sleeping and heard a loud noise their flinch response would be restricted and they’d fall back to sleep quickly, or not really wake at all). The reason that we learn to react to loud noises so early on, is that our auditory senses can pick up dangers that we’re not able to see yet i.e. dangers that are hidden or further away. When somebody screams at someone they will flinch, freeze for a moment; so involuntary screaming acts as a call for help and as a way of creating a small window of opportunity, where an assailant hesitates.

In certain situations, making a call for help by screaming, will not be in your best interest; if you start screaming when a mugger demands your wallet whilst in a crowded place they may feel obliged to stop you alerting everyone to their presence – the criminals greatest fear is getting caught. A much better survival strategy would be to hand over your wallet/money and not draw attention to the crime that is being committed. If you believe that the mugger intends to cause you harm then screaming/shouting as you make a physical defense has a place; as a call for help it only reinforces your “victim” status, showing you want others to come to your assistance and gives the mugger a new problem to deal with – one they will probably solve with a physical solution.

Should you scream, shout, “Kiai” as you make a physical defense? It all depends on you as an individual. Some people will not be able to shout, speak or make any noise when attacked. Under high stress and emotion certain abilities and functions shut down; one of these is the ability to speak. When we become highly emotional we lose some of our verbal skills. If you have ever got into a heated argument you may have found that you, or the person you are talking to starts to mix up the order of the words, mispronounces things or stutters and is unable to form actual words. As we move towards fight or flight mode our bodies recognize that the time for talking and debating is over and the need to respond physically is approaching – as part of this process it shuts down certain of our normal processes, such as speaking and hearing, and clears bandwidth for the emotional responses we will need when engaging in a physical confrontation. This means that for some people making noise and shouting will not be a response that they can make – they will fight in silence. Trained individuals who practice tying noise to their movements will respond differently however this doesn’t make them “right” and the person who makes no noise “wrong”, they are simply two different ways of responding.

As with all dangerous situations there is not one way to respond, the situation determines the solution e.g. if you are being mugged at knife point in a crowded shopping mall, it is better to hand over your money than create a scene, if somebody is trying to bundle you in to a car and abduct you then it is a good idea to make a scene. Whether that involves screaming and shouting will depend on who you are, how you react to things naturally, and your level of stress and emotion (you fear response). Everybody responds differently, and there is no right or wrong when it comes to making noise.