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Asked by rutters to Ed, Katie, Sam, Steve, Vera on 19 Jun 2011.
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Steven Daly answered on 17 Jun 2011:
A knee-jerk reaction is like an automatic response to something, which isn’t always the correct reaction. I am guessing it has something to do with the reflex where when you hit your knee it jerks, but I am not sure of this.
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Vera Weisbecker answered on 17 Jun 2011:
I bet Steven is right! If you hit the area just under your knee (the soft bit) while dangling your legs, your lower leg will automatically kick forwards. Try this with a friend, it really works!
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Ed Morrison answered on 17 Jun 2011:
Yes, I think Steven is right. I believe when you tap just below the knee with a small hammer, the leg jerks automatically. This is called a reflex because the brain is not involved in the reaction – it’s all done by the spinal cord. This means it is not something we can control consciously. Doctor’s do this test sometimes to test whether the nervous system is working properly. Another reflex is when we jerk our hand away if we touch a pot of boiling water. So a knee-jerk reaction is something very fast and automatic which we don’t have conscious control over.
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Sam Tazzyman answered on 17 Jun 2011:
Usually when we say a knee-jerk reaction we mean that it hasn’t been thought through – which as the others say is because an ACTUAL knee jerk reaction isn’t thought through consciously. Usually the phrase “knee-jerk reaction” is used in circumstances where someone has done something wrong without thinking about it properly.
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Katie Marriott answered on 19 Jun 2011:
I agree with the others. We tested each others reflexes in biology at school by hitting just below the knee. I hate the feeling!
Comments
rutters commented on :
thanks people 🙂