August 31, 2026 • 10 mins
Blushing is an involuntary reaction that can seem to draw more attention to yourself at exactly the worst moment. Learn why this embarrassing response to embarrassment can actually be useful in today's episode of BrainStuff, based on this article: https://science.howstuffworks.com/blush.htm
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to BrainStuff, a production of iHeartRadio. Hey BrainStuff, Lauren
Vogelbaum here. Maybe you've just said something that didn't quite
come out right to someone you were trying to impress.
Maybe you tripped in the middle of a busy sidewalk.
Maybe you've been called on unexpectedly in a meeting or classroom.
(00:24):
You feel a sudden jolt as your heart rate increases
and your cheeks begin to warm. You, friend, are embarrassed,
and you're blushing because of it. We humans experience involuntary
reactions to lots of emotional stimuli. You might sweat before
you give a presentation, or jump or scream if startled.
(00:46):
Blushing from embarrassment is governed by the same system that
activates your fight-or-flight response, the sympathetic nervous system. This system
is involuntary, meaning you don't actually have to think or
even intend to carry out these processes. When you feel embarrassed,
your body releases adrenaline. This hormone acts as a natural stimulant,
(01:08):
speeding up your breathing and heart rate to prepare you
to react to danger. Your pupils grow bigger, allowing you
to take in as much visual information as possible, while
your digestive process slows to redirect blood flow to your muscles.
All of these effects account for that jolt you encounter
when you feel embarrassment, the sort of rush you feel,
(01:29):
the sudden sense of focus, and drop or butterflies in
your stomach. Adrenaline also causes your blood vessels to dilate
in order to improve blood flow and oxygen delivery. This
is the case with blushing. The veins in your face,
and sometimes your ears, neck, and upper chest, respond to
a chemical signal that tells the veins to allow the
(01:51):
adrenaline to do its magic. As a result, those veins dilate,
allowing more blood to flow through them than usual. This
reddened or darkened appearance is how the body responds to
an embarrassing situation. Anything from receiving public criticism or praise,
to watching a video of yourself, to spilling coffee on
(02:12):
your crush. This fight-or-flight response sounds reasonable enough in general.
We've all wished we could turn and walk out of
the room and into the sea from embarrassment at some point.
but it's an unusual response from your veins. Other types
of blood vessels are responsive to adrenaline, but veins generally aren't.
(02:33):
In other regions of your body, veins don't do much
when adrenaline is released. The hormone has little or no
effect on them. Blushing from embarrassment is a unique phenomenon.
There are other means by which our cheeks become flushed,
like drinking alcohol or eating a spicy dish, but only
being embarrassed causes the type of blushing that's triggered by adrenaline.
(02:57):
There has been some research into what's going on in
our brains when we blush. Back in 2024, a group
of researchers out of the Netherlands published a paper about
an albeit small study in which they a. measured blushing
via cheek temperature and b. observed participants' brains with an MRI,
while each participant watched a video of themselves singing karaoke.
(03:21):
The researchers found that the parts of the brain that
activated during blushing indicated heightened visual attention and heightened emotional arousal.
meaning that the blushing participants were paying closer attention to
how they looked, and they felt sort of fraught about it,
meaning that blushing may be an adrenal response to feeling
(03:42):
exposed and vulnerable, just socially instead of physically. What the
researchers didn't observe in blushers was increased activity in the
parts of the brain that handled deeper reflections. The participants
were not considering how their actions might be received and
then blushing. It was a more immediate reaction to being
(04:02):
perceived at all. But okay, what possible purpose could there
be for more blood to flow through your cheeks when
you feel embarrassed like this? Where did blushing come from evolutionarily?
This is the sort of question that science has a
hard time answering definitively, but researchers are working on it,
(04:23):
and we have a good hypothesis. blushing has been determined
to be universal among, as well as exclusive to, humans. So,
it seems that we specifically developed a specific process that
physically displays our embarrassment. The leading hypothesis goes that blushing
(04:43):
evolved as a means of enforcing the social codes by
which we humans must adhere in order for society to
function in a smooth and friendly manner. By blushing when
we're embarrassed, we're showing others that we recognize that we've
just made a social misstep and that we feel real
weird about it, which hopefully means that we'll try to
(05:03):
avoid similar missteps in the future. Others who see us
blushing after an awkward moment understand from experience that the
feelings associated with it are unpleasant. In this regard, blushing
may serve as a nonverbal, physical apology for our mistake.
Some people get even more embarrassed after blushing over an
(05:25):
embarrassing situation. This hypothesis would indicate that the blusher is
actually socially skilled and empathetic, that they don't want to
cause unintentional social or emotional harm. This empathy and social
aptitude seems to develop in humans at an early age,
around the time we begin to engage in social situations
with people outside of our household and inner family group.
(05:48):
By studying the development of this aptitude, psychologists found that
blushing from embarrassment develops alongside our consciousness of others. This
suggests that blushing has a purely social basis. Evolutionarily, blushing
may have developed as a means for displaying regret over
an insult to someone else, and thus to de-escalate the
(06:10):
situation and prevent possible confrontation or violence. Other animals have
developed ways of displaying calming signs to diffuse a tense
moment too. Think about your dog rolling over and showing
you their belly after being caught digging in the yard.
Exposing their belly indicates that the dog is not in
(06:31):
any way challenging you're upset at the situation. It's a
demonstration that they understand that you're mad and want to
smooth things over. And we humans do find it pretty
difficult to continue being upset with a dog once they've
rolled over and maybe given us some big eyes and
a hopeful little tail wag. Of course, such signals can't
(06:51):
be the same in every type of animal. If a
cat rolls over and shows you its belly, for example,
it's more likely to be a sign of relaxation and trust,
and or a threat that they'll hind kick you into
next Sunday if you try anything. If a cat wants
to de-escalate, they might slow blink at you to demonstrate
a low threat level, or headbutt you or vocalize as
(07:12):
a sign of your familial bond. After all, we wouldn't
be able to tell if either a dog or a
cat were blushing. But in humans, with our skin-forward faces
a focal point of expression, blushing seems to be what
we landed on to make a bad situation better. If
you hate it when you blush, unfortunately, there's not a
(07:34):
lot you can do to avoid it entirely. It is
an involuntary process. It does seem to come at precisely
the worst moment. You're already wishing you could melt away,
and suddenly your face is doing this weird thing that
could only possibly draw more attention to you. It may
be comforting to consider that the situation usually feels worse
(07:55):
than it is. Everyone understands that mistakes and self-consciousness happen.
As a performer, one of the most useful things I
was ever told is that your audience is rooting for
you to succeed. People generally want other people to have
a nice time. In the moment, you can try exercises
like reframing, that is, consciously shifting your thought process from
(08:19):
something like, wow, this is mortifying, to something more like,
this is going to be a hilarious story later. And
box breathing, for example, can help calm your nervous system.
Box breathing is a type of intentional breath exercise where
you do equal counts of, say, five seconds each, on
an inhale, a hold, an exhale, and a hold. This
(08:42):
can help you sort of reset your system back to normal.
If you find yourself experiencing a lot of embarrassment and
anxiety about it, or a lot of social anxiety in general,
talk to a healthcare provider about it. I know that
social anxiety makes it hard to talk to people about
social anxiety, but suffering is also hard. There are lots
(09:05):
of options for talk therapy and or medication that can
make life easier and really open up your world. And
there's nothing wrong with getting help. Regardless of what proves
to be the ultimate explanation for why we blush, humans
have developed an aptitude for forgiveness alongside our physical response
to embarrassment. Small studies have shown that people trust blushers
(09:29):
more than non-blushers after both have made a faux pas.
And if you've accidentally insulted someone, a direct apology will
probably make both of you feel better. The next time
you experience an awkward situation of your own making and
feel your blood rushing, just remember, this too shall pass.
Today's episode is based on the article, Why Do People Blush?
(09:53):
on HowStuffWorks.com, written by Josh Clark. BrainStuff is a production
of iHeart Podcasts in partnership with HowStuffWorks.com and is produced
by Tyler Klang. For more shows from iHeart Podcasts, visit
the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to
your favorite shows.
Welcome to BrainStuff, a production of iHeartRadio. Hey BrainStuff, Lauren
Vogelbaum here. Maybe you've just said something that didn't quite
come out right to someone you were trying to impress.
Maybe you tripped in the middle of a busy sidewalk.
Maybe you've been called on unexpectedly in a meeting or classroom.
(00:24):
You feel a sudden jolt as your heart rate increases
and your cheeks begin to warm. You, friend, are embarrassed,
and you're blushing because of it. We humans experience involuntary
reactions to lots of emotional stimuli. You might sweat before
you give a presentation, or jump or scream if startled.
(00:46):
Blushing from embarrassment is governed by the same system that
activates your fight-or-flight response, the sympathetic nervous system. This system
is involuntary, meaning you don't actually have to think or
even intend to carry out these processes. When you feel embarrassed,
your body releases adrenaline. This hormone acts as a natural stimulant,
(01:08):
speeding up your breathing and heart rate to prepare you
to react to danger. Your pupils grow bigger, allowing you
to take in as much visual information as possible, while
your digestive process slows to redirect blood flow to your muscles.
All of these effects account for that jolt you encounter
when you feel embarrassment, the sort of rush you feel,
(01:29):
the sudden sense of focus, and drop or butterflies in
your stomach. Adrenaline also causes your blood vessels to dilate
in order to improve blood flow and oxygen delivery. This
is the case with blushing. The veins in your face,
and sometimes your ears, neck, and upper chest, respond to
a chemical signal that tells the veins to allow the
(01:51):
adrenaline to do its magic. As a result, those veins dilate,
allowing more blood to flow through them than usual. This
reddened or darkened appearance is how the body responds to
an embarrassing situation. Anything from receiving public criticism or praise,
to watching a video of yourself, to spilling coffee on
(02:12):
your crush. This fight-or-flight response sounds reasonable enough in general.
We've all wished we could turn and walk out of
the room and into the sea from embarrassment at some point.
but it's an unusual response from your veins. Other types
of blood vessels are responsive to adrenaline, but veins generally aren't.
(02:33):
In other regions of your body, veins don't do much
when adrenaline is released. The hormone has little or no
effect on them. Blushing from embarrassment is a unique phenomenon.
There are other means by which our cheeks become flushed,
like drinking alcohol or eating a spicy dish, but only
being embarrassed causes the type of blushing that's triggered by adrenaline.
(02:57):
There has been some research into what's going on in
our brains when we blush. Back in 2024, a group
of researchers out of the Netherlands published a paper about
an albeit small study in which they a. measured blushing
via cheek temperature and b. observed participants' brains with an MRI,
while each participant watched a video of themselves singing karaoke.
(03:21):
The researchers found that the parts of the brain that
activated during blushing indicated heightened visual attention and heightened emotional arousal.
meaning that the blushing participants were paying closer attention to
how they looked, and they felt sort of fraught about it,
meaning that blushing may be an adrenal response to feeling
(03:42):
exposed and vulnerable, just socially instead of physically. What the
researchers didn't observe in blushers was increased activity in the
parts of the brain that handled deeper reflections. The participants
were not considering how their actions might be received and
then blushing. It was a more immediate reaction to being
(04:02):
perceived at all. But okay, what possible purpose could there
be for more blood to flow through your cheeks when
you feel embarrassed like this? Where did blushing come from evolutionarily?
This is the sort of question that science has a
hard time answering definitively, but researchers are working on it,
(04:23):
and we have a good hypothesis. blushing has been determined
to be universal among, as well as exclusive to, humans. So,
it seems that we specifically developed a specific process that
physically displays our embarrassment. The leading hypothesis goes that blushing
(04:43):
evolved as a means of enforcing the social codes by
which we humans must adhere in order for society to
function in a smooth and friendly manner. By blushing when
we're embarrassed, we're showing others that we recognize that we've
just made a social misstep and that we feel real
weird about it, which hopefully means that we'll try to
(05:03):
avoid similar missteps in the future. Others who see us
blushing after an awkward moment understand from experience that the
feelings associated with it are unpleasant. In this regard, blushing
may serve as a nonverbal, physical apology for our mistake.
Some people get even more embarrassed after blushing over an
(05:25):
embarrassing situation. This hypothesis would indicate that the blusher is
actually socially skilled and empathetic, that they don't want to
cause unintentional social or emotional harm. This empathy and social
aptitude seems to develop in humans at an early age,
around the time we begin to engage in social situations
with people outside of our household and inner family group.
(05:48):
By studying the development of this aptitude, psychologists found that
blushing from embarrassment develops alongside our consciousness of others. This
suggests that blushing has a purely social basis. Evolutionarily, blushing
may have developed as a means for displaying regret over
an insult to someone else, and thus to de-escalate the
(06:10):
situation and prevent possible confrontation or violence. Other animals have
developed ways of displaying calming signs to diffuse a tense
moment too. Think about your dog rolling over and showing
you their belly after being caught digging in the yard.
Exposing their belly indicates that the dog is not in
(06:31):
any way challenging you're upset at the situation. It's a
demonstration that they understand that you're mad and want to
smooth things over. And we humans do find it pretty
difficult to continue being upset with a dog once they've
rolled over and maybe given us some big eyes and
a hopeful little tail wag. Of course, such signals can't
(06:51):
be the same in every type of animal. If a
cat rolls over and shows you its belly, for example,
it's more likely to be a sign of relaxation and trust,
and or a threat that they'll hind kick you into
next Sunday if you try anything. If a cat wants
to de-escalate, they might slow blink at you to demonstrate
a low threat level, or headbutt you or vocalize as
(07:12):
a sign of your familial bond. After all, we wouldn't
be able to tell if either a dog or a
cat were blushing. But in humans, with our skin-forward faces
a focal point of expression, blushing seems to be what
we landed on to make a bad situation better. If
you hate it when you blush, unfortunately, there's not a
(07:34):
lot you can do to avoid it entirely. It is
an involuntary process. It does seem to come at precisely
the worst moment. You're already wishing you could melt away,
and suddenly your face is doing this weird thing that
could only possibly draw more attention to you. It may
be comforting to consider that the situation usually feels worse
(07:55):
than it is. Everyone understands that mistakes and self-consciousness happen.
As a performer, one of the most useful things I
was ever told is that your audience is rooting for
you to succeed. People generally want other people to have
a nice time. In the moment, you can try exercises
like reframing, that is, consciously shifting your thought process from
(08:19):
something like, wow, this is mortifying, to something more like,
this is going to be a hilarious story later. And
box breathing, for example, can help calm your nervous system.
Box breathing is a type of intentional breath exercise where
you do equal counts of, say, five seconds each, on
an inhale, a hold, an exhale, and a hold. This
(08:42):
can help you sort of reset your system back to normal.
If you find yourself experiencing a lot of embarrassment and
anxiety about it, or a lot of social anxiety in general,
talk to a healthcare provider about it. I know that
social anxiety makes it hard to talk to people about
social anxiety, but suffering is also hard. There are lots
(09:05):
of options for talk therapy and or medication that can
make life easier and really open up your world. And
there's nothing wrong with getting help. Regardless of what proves
to be the ultimate explanation for why we blush, humans
have developed an aptitude for forgiveness alongside our physical response
to embarrassment. Small studies have shown that people trust blushers
(09:29):
more than non-blushers after both have made a faux pas.
And if you've accidentally insulted someone, a direct apology will
probably make both of you feel better. The next time
you experience an awkward situation of your own making and
feel your blood rushing, just remember, this too shall pass.
Today's episode is based on the article, Why Do People Blush?
(09:53):
on HowStuffWorks.com, written by Josh Clark. BrainStuff is a production
of iHeart Podcasts in partnership with HowStuffWorks.com and is produced
by Tyler Klang. For more shows from iHeart Podcasts, visit
the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to
your favorite shows.
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