A compromising comment, confusion, or a meeting of glances can make your face suddenly turn scarlet. Something that Charles Darwin called ‘the most human of expressions’, the body’s normal response every time we feel ashamed . It is triggered involuntarily when the sympathetic nervous system is activated and an adrenaline rush dilates the blood vessels in the face, allowing unusual blood flow . Simultaneously, the face reddens and heats up.
Adrenaline is part of the so-called fight or flight mechanism, our body’s way of reacting to danger. In fact, that very substance makes our hearts beat faster and our breathing speeds up when we get nervous.
However, feeling ashamed is apparently not a matter of vital emergency. Some scientists claim that blushing like this is more of a biological process related to our socialization : it evolved to show in public that we have done something against the norms or that we have transgressed moral conventions. We know it and we feel guilty about it. In this way, experts say, we mitigate the bad impression caused by the infringement and avoid a potential confrontation.
From this point of view, it can be said that blush is a good protection mechanism. In fact, recent scientific studies reveal that when we turn red we make it easier for others to forgive us . Because someone who is visibly embarrassed does not usually repeat the behavior that puts them in evidence. So important is that, according to a hypothesis by neurobiologist Mark Changizi, our vision has evolved to detect subtle changes in the color of human skin that allow us to deduce their emotions.
