July 24, 2008 • 6 mins
Blushing from embarrassment is governed by the sympathetic nervous system, which governs involuntary processes. Although we know how people blush, we still don't understand why. Check out the theories of blushing in our HowStuffWorks article.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve Camray.
It's ready. Are you welcome to Stuff you should know
from How stuff works dot Com? Stuff you should know
is brought to you by Visa. We all have things
we like to think about. Online fraud shouldn't be one
of them, because with every purchase, PISA Provinced, detects and
(00:20):
resolves online fraud safe Secure Visa. Hi'm welcome to the podcast.
I'm Josh Clark, a staff writer here at how Stuff
Works dot Com. With me is my permanent co host.
We just got the news. Chuck's here for good Charles,
Chuck Bryant, Chuck, welcome. I hope you enjoyed that seat,
because you're not getting mine. That is your seat. I do.
(00:41):
It fits my my back end well, and I'm glad
to be here. I'm glad. I'm Chuck. I hate to
tell you this, but your fly is open. Oh yeah, wow,
maybe you should do something about Sorry you guys. You
guys can't see this because this is just an audio podcast.
But Chuck is blushing with embarrassment. I've never seen Chuck
blush before. It's okay, Chuck, I won't judge This is
(01:02):
not a locker room though, so I wasn't prepared for that.
Handle your business and we'll wait a second. Every show
everything's good, So check that that actually brings to mind.
Um an article I wrote, why do people Blush? Did
you prep for this podcast? Did you read it? I did? Uh?
It was It was a good one, Josh. I thought
that it's pretty interesting. Blushing is one of those um
things that people probably don't think about very often. Everyone blushes,
(01:25):
and uh, it's exclusive to humans all of no other
animal on the planet that blushes exactly. But um, we
don't we we know how we blush, but we don't
exactly know why we blush. And isn't that weird that
that something is ubiquitous and seemingly normal is actually abnormal?
You know? Do you want to tell the folks at
home how we blush? Uh? Yeah, well it has to
(01:48):
do with the uh, the old sympathetic system, which is
also what controls the fight or flight syndrome or not syndrome.
But yeah, fans of no so the fight or flights bonds.
I wanted to say that last time to so fans
of stuff you should know are will probably be familiar
with our podcasts on hysterical strength, which I know all
(02:10):
about the fight or flight response. It's the same thing.
You're your veins and dilate and more blood gets pumping,
and your your pupils uh get larger, and then all
of a sudden you find that you might be able
to throw a lawn more off your granddaughter like Boots
he did, Hello Boots, Hello Boots. So yeah, and one
of the other things is that your your blood vessels dilate, right, right,
(02:31):
which is the case in blushing, right, Except the thing
is the blood vessels in your cheeks that actually become flushed.
Our veins um and oddly, veins don't usually respond at
all to adrenaline, but for some reason, the veins in
your cheeks too, and those are the only veins in
your body that flush or dilate when your fight or
(02:52):
flight response goes off. I mean, what the heck is that? Yeah, well,
that's kind of weird because I mean it's what everyone
would see. I mean, if your kneecaps blood, no one
would ever know if you're embarrassed, So it happens in
your face for maybe for a reason, maybe not. But
there are some theories about why we blush like what Well,
one of them is that it is in fact on
the face so other people can see it, because it's
(03:14):
a form of public apology for a faux pa you
might have had, or if you stuck your foot in
your mouth. Um, your blushing is a way to kind
of be contrite and say, you know, I'm embarrassed and
I'm sorry. I shouldn't have said that without actually saying that.
So it's like a physical example of your emotional intellect.
You're saying, I'm aware of this. Don't don't beat me,
you know, start a fight with me. It's sort of
(03:36):
like the same thing that happens. Like if your dog
hikes his leg on your dining room table and you
walk in the room, it's a very good chance your
dog might you know, lower his head and kind of
back out of the room slowly, or roll over and
show its belly. Yeah, show it's belly. It's a kind
of a similar thing. I got you, okay, now, Um,
I don't buy that one. I think it's kind of
a clumsy theory. It's not my favorite. I've got a
(03:56):
favorite theory with blushing. You want here it, We'll be
that way, Josh, I like I'd love to hear yours.
My favorite is n p A. UM. It's it's this
obscure uh theory about human personalities, and the theory is
that all of them are created based on the foundation
of narcissism, perfectionism, and aggression. Right and um, all personalities
(04:19):
can be explained through these three um outlooks or views
of life. UM. The uh there should be a balance
between the three, and the more balanced it is probably
the more normal you are. People who have almost just
one exclusively tend to be schizophrenic that kind of thing. No, no, no, no,
well you know, so with m p A or under
(04:40):
the mp A theory, blushing is actually am It is
a fight or flight response, but you're actually becoming enraged.
You're not embarrassed, your your narcissism has been affronted, right,
I gotta tell you, is the narcissist the mp A
theory really makes sense to me? Yeah, I felt that
way before too. I think the rage a little less
or sorry, a little more than the embarrassment, right Yeah, So,
(05:00):
I mean maybe we're just confusing it. Who knows. I mean, really,
at this point, as far as we know about blushing,
you or I could come up with a pretty adequate
theory for it, right. Maybe we'll publish one soon, maybe so.
But the fact is we all blush. There's no denying
that exactly. Now. You can learn more about it on
how stuff works dot com by typing why do people blush?
Into the search bar and stick around after this message
for Chuck's in my top five articles of the month,
(05:23):
right after this Stuff you should know is brought to
you by Visa. We all have things to think about,
like say, what's the best site to buy a new
leather jacket? But whether to buy the three or six
metapixel camera? But thankfully we don't need to think about
online fraud because for every purchase you make, Visa keeps
an eye out for fraud with real time fraud monitoring
(05:43):
and by making sure you're not liable for any unauthorized purchases.
How's that for peace of mind? Safe secure Visa, Thanks
for sticking around. We're gonna treat you with chucks in
my favorite articles of the last month, Chuck, what's your
first pick? My first pick, Josh is how important is sleep?
(06:03):
Very interesting article? I got one better than that. How
body farms work? It's gross? Yeah, that's a good one.
What else you got, Um, I've got one called how
the Prison Project Worked? Also very interesting, Yeah, eerie, it's
it's amazing how how quickly humans can devolve into monsters.
Expirical story. I'd like to have one. You wrote how
to Survive a Plane Crash. Yeah, that's a popular one too.
(06:24):
I guess people are interested in living through plane crashes exactly,
you know. Yeah, And I guess the last one I
have on my list is did Da Vinci Sketch a car? Yeah?
All worth reading. Of course everything on our sites was reading.
But you want to go check out these five, in
particular on how stuff works dot com for more on
this and thousands of other topics. Is that how stuff
works dot com. Let us know what you think. Send
(06:47):
an email to podcast at how stuff works dot com.
Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve Camray.
It's ready, are you
Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve Camray.
It's ready. Are you welcome to Stuff you should know
from How stuff works dot Com? Stuff you should know
is brought to you by Visa. We all have things
we like to think about. Online fraud shouldn't be one
of them, because with every purchase, PISA Provinced, detects and
(00:20):
resolves online fraud safe Secure Visa. Hi'm welcome to the podcast.
I'm Josh Clark, a staff writer here at how Stuff
Works dot Com. With me is my permanent co host.
We just got the news. Chuck's here for good Charles,
Chuck Bryant, Chuck, welcome. I hope you enjoyed that seat,
because you're not getting mine. That is your seat. I do.
(00:41):
It fits my my back end well, and I'm glad
to be here. I'm glad. I'm Chuck. I hate to
tell you this, but your fly is open. Oh yeah, wow,
maybe you should do something about Sorry you guys. You
guys can't see this because this is just an audio podcast.
But Chuck is blushing with embarrassment. I've never seen Chuck
blush before. It's okay, Chuck, I won't judge This is
(01:02):
not a locker room though, so I wasn't prepared for that.
Handle your business and we'll wait a second. Every show
everything's good, So check that that actually brings to mind.
Um an article I wrote, why do people Blush? Did
you prep for this podcast? Did you read it? I did? Uh?
It was It was a good one, Josh. I thought
that it's pretty interesting. Blushing is one of those um
things that people probably don't think about very often. Everyone blushes,
(01:25):
and uh, it's exclusive to humans all of no other
animal on the planet that blushes exactly. But um, we
don't we we know how we blush, but we don't
exactly know why we blush. And isn't that weird that
that something is ubiquitous and seemingly normal is actually abnormal?
You know? Do you want to tell the folks at
home how we blush? Uh? Yeah, well it has to
(01:48):
do with the uh, the old sympathetic system, which is
also what controls the fight or flight syndrome or not syndrome.
But yeah, fans of no so the fight or flights bonds.
I wanted to say that last time to so fans
of stuff you should know are will probably be familiar
with our podcasts on hysterical strength, which I know all
(02:10):
about the fight or flight response. It's the same thing.
You're your veins and dilate and more blood gets pumping,
and your your pupils uh get larger, and then all
of a sudden you find that you might be able
to throw a lawn more off your granddaughter like Boots
he did, Hello Boots, Hello Boots. So yeah, and one
of the other things is that your your blood vessels dilate, right, right,
(02:31):
which is the case in blushing, right, Except the thing
is the blood vessels in your cheeks that actually become flushed.
Our veins um and oddly, veins don't usually respond at
all to adrenaline, but for some reason, the veins in
your cheeks too, and those are the only veins in
your body that flush or dilate when your fight or
(02:52):
flight response goes off. I mean, what the heck is that? Yeah, well,
that's kind of weird because I mean it's what everyone
would see. I mean, if your kneecaps blood, no one
would ever know if you're embarrassed, So it happens in
your face for maybe for a reason, maybe not. But
there are some theories about why we blush like what Well,
one of them is that it is in fact on
the face so other people can see it, because it's
(03:14):
a form of public apology for a faux pa you
might have had, or if you stuck your foot in
your mouth. Um, your blushing is a way to kind
of be contrite and say, you know, I'm embarrassed and
I'm sorry. I shouldn't have said that without actually saying that.
So it's like a physical example of your emotional intellect.
You're saying, I'm aware of this. Don't don't beat me,
you know, start a fight with me. It's sort of
(03:36):
like the same thing that happens. Like if your dog
hikes his leg on your dining room table and you
walk in the room, it's a very good chance your
dog might you know, lower his head and kind of
back out of the room slowly, or roll over and
show its belly. Yeah, show it's belly. It's a kind
of a similar thing. I got you, okay, now, Um,
I don't buy that one. I think it's kind of
a clumsy theory. It's not my favorite. I've got a
(03:56):
favorite theory with blushing. You want here it, We'll be
that way, Josh, I like I'd love to hear yours.
My favorite is n p A. UM. It's it's this
obscure uh theory about human personalities, and the theory is
that all of them are created based on the foundation
of narcissism, perfectionism, and aggression. Right and um, all personalities
(04:19):
can be explained through these three um outlooks or views
of life. UM. The uh there should be a balance
between the three, and the more balanced it is probably
the more normal you are. People who have almost just
one exclusively tend to be schizophrenic that kind of thing. No, no, no, no,
well you know, so with m p A or under
(04:40):
the mp A theory, blushing is actually am It is
a fight or flight response, but you're actually becoming enraged.
You're not embarrassed, your your narcissism has been affronted, right,
I gotta tell you, is the narcissist the mp A
theory really makes sense to me? Yeah, I felt that
way before too. I think the rage a little less
or sorry, a little more than the embarrassment, right Yeah, So,
(05:00):
I mean maybe we're just confusing it. Who knows. I mean, really,
at this point, as far as we know about blushing,
you or I could come up with a pretty adequate
theory for it, right. Maybe we'll publish one soon, maybe so.
But the fact is we all blush. There's no denying
that exactly. Now. You can learn more about it on
how stuff works dot com by typing why do people blush?
Into the search bar and stick around after this message
for Chuck's in my top five articles of the month,
(05:23):
right after this Stuff you should know is brought to
you by Visa. We all have things to think about,
like say, what's the best site to buy a new
leather jacket? But whether to buy the three or six
metapixel camera? But thankfully we don't need to think about
online fraud because for every purchase you make, Visa keeps
an eye out for fraud with real time fraud monitoring
(05:43):
and by making sure you're not liable for any unauthorized purchases.
How's that for peace of mind? Safe secure Visa, Thanks
for sticking around. We're gonna treat you with chucks in
my favorite articles of the last month, Chuck, what's your
first pick? My first pick, Josh is how important is sleep?
(06:03):
Very interesting article? I got one better than that. How
body farms work? It's gross? Yeah, that's a good one.
What else you got, Um, I've got one called how
the Prison Project Worked? Also very interesting, Yeah, eerie, it's
it's amazing how how quickly humans can devolve into monsters.
Expirical story. I'd like to have one. You wrote how
to Survive a Plane Crash. Yeah, that's a popular one too.
(06:24):
I guess people are interested in living through plane crashes exactly,
you know. Yeah, And I guess the last one I
have on my list is did Da Vinci Sketch a car? Yeah?
All worth reading. Of course everything on our sites was reading.
But you want to go check out these five, in
particular on how stuff works dot com for more on
this and thousands of other topics. Is that how stuff
works dot com. Let us know what you think. Send
(06:47):
an email to podcast at how stuff works dot com.
Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve Camray.
It's ready, are you
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