The failure to acknowledge fear has tangible and substantive costs. For example, paratroopers are generally recognized as having some of the highest casualty rates and the most difficult situations to cope with in combat. Yet, as a group they have an attitude that does not permit free expressions of anxiety and fear. "In an atmosphere where everyone is tough, rough and ready for the worst," explains Stouffer, "anxiety cannot be verbalized or [be] socially accepted." But, as a result, he discovered that neurotic reactions among paratroopers "are apt to take the form of conversion symptoms involving the lower extremities—weakness or paralysis of one or both legs." Similarly, British officers who suffered from the same type of self-imposed intolerance tended to suffer from paralysis of limbs, and in extreme cases, committed suicide.