g improbable in this--or else the child, though
actually never bitten by a dog, had been warned against dogs by his
elders or had observed his elders shrinking from dogs. Children do
pick up fears in this way; for example, children who are {144}
naturally not the least bit afraid of thunder and lightning may
acquire a fear of them from adults who show fear during a
thunderstorm.

On the whole, the danger-avoiding reactions are probably not linked by
nature to any special signs of danger. While the emotion of fear, the
escape impulse, and many of the escape movements are native, the
attachment of these responses to specific stimuli--aside from directly
irritating stimuli--is acquired. Fear we do not learn, but we learn
what to fear.

Crying.

We have the best of evidence that this is a native reaction, since the
baby cries from birth on. He cries from hunger, from cold, from
discomfort, from pain, and, perhaps most of all, as he gets a little
older, from being thwarted in anything he has set out to do. This last
stimulus gives the "cry of anger", which baby specialists tell us
sounds differently from the cries of pain and of hunger. Still, there
is so much in common to the different ways of crying that we may
reasonably suppose there is some impulse, and perhaps some emotional
state, common to all of them. The common emotion cannot be anger, or
hunger, or discomfort or pain. To name it grief or sorrow would fit
the crying of adults better than that of little children. The best
guess is that the emotional state in crying is the feeling of
_helplessness_. The cry of anger is the cry of helpless anger; anger
that is not helpless expresses itself in some other way than crying;
and the same is true of hunger, pain and discomfort. Crying is the
reaction appropriate to a condition where the individual cannot help
himself--where he wants something but is powerless to get it. The
helpless baby sets up a wail that brings some one to his assistance;
that is the utility of crying, though the baby, at first, does not
have this result in view, but simply cries because he is hungry and
helpless, uncomfortable and {145} helpless, thwarted and helpless. The
child cries less as he grows older, because he learns more and more to
help himself.

With the vocal element of crying goes movement of the arms and legs,
which also has utility in attracting attention; but what may be the
utility of shedding copious tears remains a mystery, i