LEAVING the house with your skirt tucked into the back of your knickers or admiring your reflection in a shop window only to trip up on the pavement are two things likely to cause most people to go red with embarrassment.
But now scientists at a Scottish university are launching a research project to find out exactly what it is that makes us blush.
In the three-year £125,000 study, funded by the Leverhulme Trust, researchers at St Andrews University will examine t
he group dimensions of embarrassment, determining whether or not the company we're in makes us feel more flustered.
Participants will be asked to put themselves in embarrassing situations in front of different groups as researchers measure their reactions.
Dr Anjua Eller, of the university's school of psychology, who is leading the study, said empathy, anxiety, shame, guilt and other emotions had been analysed on a group level, but not embarrassment.
"The emotion of embarrassment is only felt in the presence of and because of an audience, even if that audience is imagined. The nature of the audience has only scarcely been investigated so far, but it is clearly vital. Social identity theory holds that when people act as group members, their world view changes."
Dr Eller said the project would examine whether people feel empathic embarrassment on behalf of another person who has made a faux pas, even if the person came from outwith their group.
She said: "We will investigate what happens when the embarrassed person is not a member of the group – particularly if they have a high status.
" In this case, people might actually show joy at another's misfortune – schadenfreude, rather than empathy.
"If you trip over in the street you feel very embarrassed, of course. People in your own group who witness this, your friends or those close to you, feel empathic embarrassment and try to alleviate the situation and make you feel better.
"But members of another group feel schadenfreude."
Groups being studied include students of different universities, as well as people of different nationalities and sports teams.
Dr Eller said the project might provide practical insights into why some people do not intervene when confronted with an emergency such as a woman being attacked by a man in the street.
Researchers will also analyse whether fear of embarrassment could cause people to avoid contact with those from different groups and cultures.
Nervous response that makes faces turn redSCIENTIFICALLY, blushing begins with an emotion – usually one associated with self-consciousness.
When you feel ashamed or embarrassed the body releases adrenaline. This, in turn, increases the heart rate and causes you to breathe faster.
A confused state of mind then acts upon the sympathetic nervous system. Nerve fibres are stimulated, which causes the peripheral capillaries to expand.
Blood vessels delivering blood to the face start to dilate, causing more blood than usual to flow to the skin of your face, making it turn noticeably red.
Blushing doesn't necessarily indicate that a person is excessively modest or feeling self-conscious. Some people have highly reactive blood vessels. Others show social stress in different ways. They may have neck tension or a rapid heartbeat.
Blushing is associated with the young and inexperienced rather than the aged. And women blush more readily than men.
Sometimes people may not blush visibly, but react in other ways, perhaps tapping their fingers noisily or clearing their throat.
The full article contains 580 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
