Why do people blush? A question that seems to have a fairly straight forward answer. Most people blush during situations that induce feelings of embarrassment or shame.
I mean, think of yourself getting up stage to receive your diploma or to give your graduation speech, and while you’re climbing the stairs, you trip and fall. Time stops for a couple of seconds. And by the time you’re actually up again, you start to hear laughter around you; you turn your head towards the attendings and see hundreds of eyes focused just on you while others are still laughing. Now tell me, would you blush?
I bet just the idea itself sounds terrifying and it may even cause your face to feel red or hot.
But let’s just think about it for a moment, why do we blush? What’s the purpose behind this physiologic reaction? Why do some people blush while other don’t? Why do some people blush excessively?
I’ll be answering all of these questions in this article.
What is blushing?
Blushing happens when the blood vessels in the face, neck, ears, and upper chest become dilated or expanded, as a result the face heats up from the excessive amount of blood reaching it and the skin becomes red.
This is about the time other people start pointing fingers at your red face, like you already don’t know it’s happening.
Note that blushing is more prominent in fair skin individuals, and that for some people with darker skins, blushing may not even be visible. Only the person blushing knows it’s happening because their face feels hot.
Associated behavior with blushing
- Reduced eye contact
When people blush, they avert their gaze, they look away from other people, and sometimes they even drop their head to face the ground.
In fact, it’s really difficult to look into people’s eyes when you’re blushing. I’m sure you’re excited to try it now because you’re all about the scientific method, or not.
2. Expressing a silly nervous smile
This is not always the case but most often, it’s what happens. And if you think about it, it’s actually quite weird. I mean, we often smile when we’re feeling happy, and blushing in front of other people doesn’t really induce a feeling of happiness.
This smile is easily identifiable and differentiated from the usual happy smile.
Why do people blush?
Some scientists have reached the conclusion that blushing occurs when an undesirable event takes place in which you’re shown to be incompetent or when you convey an unwanted impression of yourself. In short terms, some scientists say that when a person’s public image is humiliated, they blush.
However, this can’t be the whole story. People also blush when others seem to think very highly of them, or when they are complimented, praised, and honored.
Moreover, blushing doesn’t have to be associated with your public image being affected, whether it’s a positive impression or a negative one. Sometimes, we blush because we’re the center of attention, or even when we are being stared at.
An interesting study was conducted where participants were seated on a chair and temperature sensors were attached to their faces to measure the degree of blushing. The participants were facing a curtain and once it was pulled back, they faced a group of people starting at them.
For some participants, the group of people who were staring at them were wearing sunglasses to avoid seeing their eyes. As a result, participants who faced people with sunglasses blushed less than those who were faced with multiple staring eyes. Something about the staring eyes plays a role in making people blush.
Another thing that causes people to blush is being accused of blushing which is in itself strange.
What’s the purpose behind this physiologic reaction?
The best explanation for why blushing occurs must have something to do with being in a social situation. We have two competing theories that focus on this blushing-social interaction situation.
The remedial perspective
In 1839, Thomas Henry Burgess published a book called the physiology or mechanism of blushing. In this book, Burgess argued that blushing is our way of admitting the fact that we violated a social norm. Blushing is a sign of that fact from us to other people.
Many other writers followed Burgess on this idea that when we blush, we know that we broke a social rule and this is our way of apologizing.
Think about it for a second. If you catch someone in an incompetent, shameful situation and they don’t blush, it could be a sign that they either don’t know that what they did was wrong or they simply don’t care.
In both cases, this could be a sign that this individual isn’t trust worthy.
While if they blush, you’ll know that they recognize their mistake and they feel shameful about it. Especially since blushing is involuntary. You really can’t fake it.
So according to the remedial perspective, blushing is a social sign or cue that immediately tells other people that you know you messed up and that you’re sorry.
Right of the bat, this gives us some advice. If you break a social rule or make a fool out of yourself, don’t try to deny or hide your blushing; other people tend to be more forgiving if they realize you’re sorry about what you did
On the other hand, this remedial perspective doesn’t tell us the whole story. Why? Well, we already established that people blush even when they didn’t do anything embarrassing.
Undesired social attention
Like the name suggests, this approach says that people blush when they receive undesired social attention.
Obviously, negative social attention is undesired by everyone and it could trigger blushing but that’s understandable.
On the other hand, positive social attention can be undesired. Of course, we want people to like us and think of us positively, but when they single us out for compliments or honors and they make a big deal about it, their attention can get too intense.
Being observed closely by many people can make us self-conscious and uncomfortable even if that attention is in our honor.
According to this explanation, the function of blushing is to tell other people to stop paying attention, which often works. What do you do when you see someone blushing? You probably change the subject, look away simply because seeing someone else blush only makes you uncomfortable yourself.
Why do some people blush while others don’t?
Some people rarely blush while others blush almost every day. Often times blushing a lot may create some difficulties for individuals because they’ll feel embarrassed by how many times it happens. Some people even blush because they blush too much.
Because blushing is caused by social attention, people who blush excessively in these situations are the ones most bothered with this attention. And here’s couple of reasons why these individuals feel uncomfortable in these situations
- High public self-consciousness that makes people think more about how they’re viewed by others
- Fear of negative evaluation
- Low self-confidence
Conclusion
The next time that you blush or see someone else blushing, try to find out if it’s a reaction to an undesired social attention. If so, pay attention to the lowered eye contact and the silly nervous smile, then consider how this uniquely human feature affects other people’s reaction towards the person blushing.
And finally, come back and comment on whether your observation is compatible with what I mentioned in this article or not.