knee-jerk reactions
Unthinking immediate responses
Knee-jerk reactions are automatic, unthinking responses—the mental equivalent of the reflex that makes your leg kick when a doctor taps your knee.
The term is almost always critical, suggesting someone responded emotionally or defensively without pausing to consider: His knee-jerk reaction was to blame the media.
A single instance is a knee-jerk reaction; the adjective knee-jerk modifies other nouns too: knee-jerk response, knee-jerk opposition.
- reflexInvoluntary stimulus response
- knee jerkInvoluntary leg response
- instinctInnate behavioral tendency
- gut feelingInstinctive sense about something
- gutDigestive tract, or instinct
snap · snap judgment · split second · impulse · twitch · automatic · flinch · without thinking · hasty · unthinking · visceral · fight or flight · spontaneous · defensive · overreaction · hammer · doctor · trigger
- impulsivityimpulsiveness, impulsivity, rashness, recklessness, hastiness
knee-jerk reactionsmeasured response
Controlled, proportional reply
reflective thinking · informed decision · sleeping on it · due diligence · circumspection
knee-jerk reactionscritical analysis
Evaluative examination of work
fresh perspective · questioning assumptions · intellectual rigor
knees, jerks, jerked, jerking, kneecap, kneecaps, kneeling, kneels, reaction