What is the difference between chills and goosebumps?

Chills and goosebumps are not the same. Chills describe a kind of feeling you have when there is cold, while goosebumps refer to the several small bumps you have on your skin whenever you are feeling cold. Chills can also be caused by other conditions; at times, one of the symptoms of malaria is that you start having a sudden feeling of being cold. During the cold period, goosebumps are formed by the contraction of the muscle at the base of the hair and thereby causing the hair to stand straight.

This is just one of the mechanisms that describe how the body always reacts to cold to give warmth to itself. Goosebumps are formed by a lot of things. Goosebumps can appear on your skin when you tickled by someone. They may also appear anytime you are getting emotional. The only relationship between chills and goosebumps is that chills can give you goosebumps.

Chills is a feeling of being cold; it is a penetrating sense of cold, especially one that causes a brief trembling nerve response through the body. The trembling response is mostly due to illness, often fever, or an association with other health conditions. Goosebump, on the other hand, is raised skin usually caused by the involuntary erection of hairs on the body, mostly on the neck and arms. The medical term for goosebump is piloerection or cutis anserine. Goosebump is often caused by cold air, extreme emotions such as shock, excitement, or fear. In summary, chills are a sign of illness, but goosebump occurs as a response to a stimulus such as cold air and strong emotions. It is not associated with illness.

Both chills and goosebumps can be associated with the cold. A chill will often result in goosebumps, but the same is not necessarily true vice versa, although both also involve the emotion of fear. You can acquire goosebumps when you’re afraid, and you can get a chill when you’re scared.

Chills can also be derived from having a fever, but the same is not true for goosebumps. It all depends on your body temperature. Chills mainly occur at the start of an infection and are generally accompanied by a fever. Chills can also arise from being exposed to a cold environment, such as outside in the winter. Getting goosebumps when you are cold tends to refer more to needing a sweater or a blanket. Having the chills sound more dramatic than having goosebumps.