Yields during recession

Why does the yield curve steepen during recessions? I am thinking in poor economic times there is a flight to quality where fixed income is bought into. Does this not drive the price of bonds up and thus the yields down?

Thanks

Rex, as it relates to spot curves, the way I think of it is that as we enter recessions, the flight to quality can be seen in people selling their risky asset positions and buying up very short-term t-bills driving up the prices (down the yields) while demand for longer dated notes/bonds is comparatively lower driving down the prices (up the yields) which leads to a steepening type of effect. Maybe someone else has a more academically exhaustive way to explain it, but that’s how I think of it.

Cheers mate, that’s a good way to think of it