Reaction and response are descriptions of the action we take when something happens.
- A reaction is compulsive. It is an unthinking knee-jerk action based on habit and conditioning. The consequence of a reaction is often negative.
- A response is well thought through and the action taken is the consequence of consciously deciding what is the best action to be taken at that time. A response obtains a good result most of the time.
The best illustration of the difference between react and respond is when applied to medication. When a person is given medication, what do we mean when we say react or respond?
React to medicine is negative, a bad effect. If the person suffers from some bad effect because of taking the medicine, we say that the person reacted to the medicine.
Respond to medicine is positive, a good effect. If the person is relieved of the illness and becomes better, we say the person responded to the medicine.
The same principle applies to the world at large. The intelligent, thinking person looks at what happened, thinks of the consequences of his actions and then takes the action which will yield the best result. Of course there are times when even the best thought through action can result in a negative effect because of uncontrollable circumstances, but most of the time, the result is positive. The probability of a positive result is higher.
The unthinking person simply reacts based on what he has done before or what has been done to him, giving no thought to what could happen as the result of his action. Of course, there are times when a reaction can obtain a positive result. We say the person got lucky. But most of the time, a knee-jerk reaction gets a negative result. The probability of a positive result is lower.
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