Our bodies react physically to verbal insults, regardless of our age, according to Strouse and as evidenced by Klein’s reaction in the video. “How the brain processes an insult or a critical remark is phenomenal,” Strouse says. “There is pupil dilation, the body temperature rises, the volume of the voice rises if we decide to reply to the name-caller—and this all happens in ‘rapid-time’—so it’s not going to be that easy for a youngster to combat a mean word with a wry come-back.”
