Some people have really good poker faces. You can never really tell if they’re nervous or upset. Then there are paler people, and for some reason the human body decided nope I’m going to make it super obvious every time you get embarrassed. I’m going to make sure your entire face turns red; yup I’m going to make you blush.
Now there are some people who find blushing to be cute. Do you want to know something about those people? They are wrong, dead wrong. Lets start with the fact that blushing is really random, I mean it happens when you meet someone cute, fail a test, want to cry, any emotion really can lead to blushing. What’s actually happening in your body when you blush is over activity of the sympathetic nervous system, prompting blood vessels to open wide and flooding the skin with blood. But why does this happen when our bodies are uncomfortable. Doesn’t it seem counter productive that our reaction to embarrassment is a big flashing wave to the public that yes indeed you are embarrassed. Interestingly the reaction is part of our fight or flight reflex. Recent studies done by undergraduate students at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands have discovered that “the act of blushing serves to signal the actor’s genuine regret or remorse over a wrongdoing, showing that the person recognizes the social or moral infraction and will probably endeavor not to repeat it. Blushing can help others predict your future behavior, assuming that you, like many others, do not enjoy being embarrassed and have learned from your mistakes. They are appeased by the involuntary act of contrition.” I think that’s pretty interesting basically it means that when we blush we are signaling others to take pity on us, but usually people just ask if you’re feeling ok. But I suppose it makes sense kind of because admit it, every time someone does something embarrassing for a split second the only thing we all think is “thank god that wasn’t me”, and usually we feel bad for the person, and move on quickly. So, maybe blushing really does trigger some sort of forgiveness inside us.
Source:
http://mentalfloss.com/article/51299/why-do-people-blush
http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/to-your-health/wp/2014/04/29/why-do-we-blush/
I do not blush easily but one of my good friends does. Its amazing how even the slightest encounter of something embarrassing happening, my friend turns bright red! I never knew it was because of our sympathetic nervous system.
This article relates to me because I never knew I blushed – even though I felt my face get hot many times I never assumed it had visible signs. One day two years ago my friend said something to make me feel embarrassed and just said “I love when you blush it’s so old fashioned.” It’s interesting though that the blush would be a sign of apology and pity, revealing the blusher’s true emotions towards the embarrassing or uncomfortable act. I’ll think about this now whenever my face gets warm with embarrassment, thanks for sharing!
I know personally that I hate when I blush because it is an obvious mark that I am embarrassed about something. It is really interesting that our bodies have the ability to show off physically how we are mentally feeling. I really did not know the reason that we blushed and how it happened. I wonder if there is a way to control the our bodies from blushing in an embarrassing event.
That is very interesting that blushing is actually a fight or flight response, but it has caused many problems in people. Some people turn red so easily that they actually develop a fear of blushing, called Erythrophobia. This is the fear of blushing that some people have, so they avoid situations that might cause them to blush.
I myself have never been one to blush often but i do have a friend that blushes at EVERYTHING so i really wanted to read what this blog had to say. I had no idea what caused us to blush other then being shy and being embarrassed, who knew that it was actually your sympathetic nervous system at play here causing blood vessels to open wide and appear to be red. Do you know of any research of people that have the syndrome where they constantly blush to a point of over doing it?