People have often wondered why impulsive action can override prudent inhibition, especially in teens. One theory is that this occurs because it allows people to take risks that are necessary and face dangers associated with life and passage into adulthood. This phenomena can be observed in both animals and humans. In human cultures teens are often required to take social risks by learning to make eye contact with adults when they commonly do not, especially if their parent is angry with them.

Thomson’s gazelles often stroll right toward cheetahs to engage in “predator inspection”. They do this to get an idea of what an animal that might eat them is like. The confused predators will frequently slink away at the is bold approach, though there are casualties that occur

Alternatively, other antipredation strategies include things such as mobbing. Mobbing occurs when animals move together in one big group while vocalizing threateningly to intimidate a hunter into seeking its meal elsewhere. This strategy is safer than predator inspection and older adults can use it to teach young adolescents to identify the community’s predators. A parallel to this strategy can be routinely seen in human culture as adults will, at times, tell stories of murder and peril to scare, then instruct. This practice can be seen in American culture when students in a driver’s education classes are shown a film of people dying in car accidents before instruction occurs.