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Embarrassment or awkwardness is an
emotion Emotions are mental states brought on by neurophysiological changes, variously associated with thoughts, feelings, behavioral responses, and a degree of pleasure or displeasure. There is currently no scientific consensus on a definition. ...
al state that is associated with mild to severe levels of discomfort, and which is usually experienced when someone commits (or thinks of) a socially unacceptable or frowned-upon act that is witnessed by or revealed to others. Frequently grouped with
shame Shame is an unpleasant self-conscious emotion often associated with negative self-evaluation; motivation to quit; and feelings of pain, exposure, distrust, powerlessness, and worthlessness. Definition Shame is a discrete, basic emotion, d ...
and guilt, embarrassment is considered a “ self-conscious emotion,” and it can have a profoundly negative impact on a person’s thoughts or behavior. Usually, some perception of loss of honor or
dignity Dignity is the right of a person to be valued and respected for their own sake, and to be treated ethically. It is of significance in morality, ethics, law and politics as an extension of the Enlightenment-era concepts of inherent, inalienable ...
(or other high-value ideals) is involved, but the embarrassment level and the type depends on the situation.


Causes

Embarrassment can be personal, caused by unwanted attention to private matters or personal flaws or mishaps or shyness. Some causes of embarrassment stem from personal actions, such as being caught in a lie or in making a mistake. In many cultures, being seen nude or inappropriately dressed is a particularly stressful form of embarrassment (see
modesty Modesty, sometimes known as demureness, is a mode of dress and deportment which intends to avoid the encouraging of sexual attraction in others. The word "modesty" comes from the Latin word '' modestus'' which means "keeping within measure".Jen ...
). Personal embarrassment can also stem from the actions of others who place the embarrassed person in a socially awkward situation—such as a parent showing one's baby pictures to friends, having someone make a derogatory comment about one's appearance or behavior, discovering one is the victim of gossip, being rejected by another person (see also
humiliation Humiliation is the abasement of pride, which creates mortification or leads to a state of being humbled or reduced to lowliness or submission. It is an emotion felt by a person whose social status, either by force or willingly, has just dec ...
), being made the focus of attention (e.g., birthday celebrants, newlyweds), or even witnessing someone else's embarrassment. Personal embarrassment is usually accompanied by some combination of
blushing Blushing is the reddening of a person's face due to psychological reasons. It is normally involuntary and triggered by emotional stress associated with passion, embarrassment, shyness, fear, anger, or romantic stimulation. Severe blushing ...
, sweating, nervousness, stammering, and fidgeting. Sometimes the embarrassed person tries to mask embarrassment with smiles or
nervous laughter Nervous laughter is laughter provoked from an audience's expression of alarm, embarrassment, discomfort or confusion, rather than amusement. Nervous laughter is usually less robust in expression than "a good belly laugh", and may be combined wi ...
, especially in etiquette situations. Such a response is more common in certain cultures, which may lead to misunderstanding. There may also be feelings of
anger Anger, also known as wrath or rage, is an intense emotional state involving a strong uncomfortable and non-cooperative response to a perceived provocation, hurt or threat. A person experiencing anger will often experience physical effects, suc ...
depending on the perceived seriousness of the situation, especially if the individual thinks another person is intentionally causing the embarrassment. There is a range of responses, with the most minor being a perception of the embarrassing act as inconsequential or even humorous, to intense apprehension or fear. The idea that embarrassment serves an apology or appeasement function originated with Goffman who argued the embarrassed individual "demonstrates that he/she is at least disturbed by the fact and may prove worthy at another time". Semin and Manstead demonstrated social functions of embarrassment whereby the perpetrator of knocking over a sales display (the "bad act") was deemed more likable by others if he/she appeared embarrassed than if he/she appeared unconcerned – regardless of restitution behavior (rebuilding the display). The capacity to experience embarrassment can also be seen as functional for the group or culture. It has been demonstrated that those who are not prone to embarrassment are more likely to engage in antisocial behavior – for example, adolescent boys who displayed more embarrassment were found less likely to engage in aggressive/delinquent behaviors. Similarly, embarrassment exhibited by boys more likely to engage in aggressive/delinquent behavior was less than one-third of that exhibited by non-aggressive boys. Thus proneness to embarrassment (i.e., a concern for how one is evaluated by others) can act as a brake on behavior that would be dysfunctional for a group or culture.


Professional embarrassment

Embarrassment can also be professional or official, especially after statements expressing confidence in a stated course of action, or willful disregard for evidence. Embarrassment increases greatly in instances involving official duties or workplace facilities, large amounts of money or materials, or loss of human life. Examples of causes include a government's failed public policy, exposure of corrupt practices or unethical behavior, a celebrity whose personal habits receive public scrutiny or face legal action, or officials caught in serious personally embarrassing situations. Even small errors or miscalculations can lead to significantly greater official embarrassment if it is discovered that there was willful disregard for evidence or directives involved (e.g., see
Space Shuttle Challenger Space Shuttle ''Challenger'' (OV-099) was a Space Shuttle orbiter manufactured by Rockwell International and operated by NASA. Named after the commanding ship of a nineteenth-century scientific expedition that traveled the world, ''Challen ...
). Not all official failures result in official embarrassment, even if the circumstances lead to some slight personal embarrassment for the people involved. For example, losing a close political election might cause some personal embarrassment for the candidate but generally would be considered an honorable loss in the profession and thus not necessarily lead to professional embarrassment. Similarly, a scientist might be personally disappointed and embarrassed if one of their hypotheses was proven wrong, but would not normally suffer professional embarrassment as a result. By contrast, exposure of falsified data supporting a scientific claim would likely lead to professional embarrassment in the scientific community. Professional or official embarrassment is often accompanied by public expressions of
anger Anger, also known as wrath or rage, is an intense emotional state involving a strong uncomfortable and non-cooperative response to a perceived provocation, hurt or threat. A person experiencing anger will often experience physical effects, suc ...
, denial of involvement, or attempts to minimize the consequences. Sometimes the embarrassed entity issues press statements, removes or distances themselves from sub-level employees, attempts to carry on as if nothing happened, suffers income loss, emigrates, or vanishes from public view.


Vicarious embarrassment

Vicarious embarrassment is an embarrassed feeling from observing the embarrassing actions of another person.Ahmet Uysal, Gülçin Akbas, Elif Helvacı, and Irem Metin
Validation and correlates of the vicarious embarrassment scale
''Personality and Individual Differences'' 60 (2014), pp. 48–53
People who rate themselves as more empathic are more likely to experience vicarious embarrassment.EurekAlert!
Your flaws are my pain
13 April 2011
The effect is present whether or not the observed party is aware of the embarrassing nature of their actions, although awareness generally increases the strength of the felt vicarious embarrassment, as does an accidental (as opposed to intentional) action.Sören Krach, Jan Christopher Cohrs, Nicole Cruz de Echeverría Loebell, Tilo Kircher, Jens Sommer, Andreas Jansen, and Frieder Michel Paulus
Your Flaws Are My Pain: Linking Empathy To Vicarious Embarrassment
PLoS ONE, 13 April 2011


Types in social psychology

One typology of embarrassment is described by Sharkey and Stafford. There are six types of embarrassment: #
Privacy Privacy (, ) is the ability of an individual or group to seclude themselves or information about themselves, and thereby express themselves selectively. The domain of privacy partially overlaps with security, which can include the concepts of a ...
violations – for example where a part of the body is accidentally exposed, or there is an invasion of space, property, or information that may be warranted to privacy, # Lack of
knowledge Knowledge can be defined as awareness of facts or as practical skills, and may also refer to familiarity with objects or situations. Knowledge of facts, also called propositional knowledge, is often defined as true belief that is disti ...
and
skill A skill is the learned ability to act with determined results with good execution often within a given amount of time, energy, or both. Skills can often be divided into domain-general and domain-specific skills. For example, in the domain of w ...
– for example forgetfulness, or experiencing failure while performing a relatively easy task # Criticism and rejection – is another cause of embarrassment, as well as being made the center of attention positively or negatively # Awkward acts – refer to social situations, for example, inappropriate conversations, clumsiness or ungraceful actions (such as an emotional outbreak like speaking out unintentionally) that can trigger embarrassment # Appropriate image – refers to more of a personal reflection of embarrassment, like body image, clothing apparel, and personal possessions (for example owning an older mobile phone compared to the latest model) #
Environment Environment most often refers to: __NOTOC__ * Natural environment, all living and non-living things occurring naturally * Biophysical environment, the physical and biological factors along with their chemical interactions that affect an organism or ...
– can also have the effect of provoking embarrassment, as when an individual in a movie theatre with his or her parents, other family, co-workers, or mixed-company peers is made uncomfortable by an unexpected occurrence of nudity in the film that the group is watching. Another typology, by Cupach and Metts, discusses the dimensions of intended-unintended and appropriate-inappropriate behavior, and four basic types of embarrassing circumstances: # Faux pas (socially awkward acts) #
Accidents An accident is an unintended, normally unwanted event that was not directly caused by humans. The term ''accident'' implies that nobody should be blamed, but the event may have been caused by unrecognized or unaddressed risks. Most researche ...
# Mistakes # Failure to perform a duty or moral obligation. Based on these types, Cupach and Metts classify two basic embarrassment situations: the actor responsible and the observer responsible. Actor responsible situations are embarrassing when a person executes an act that is either inappropriate to a point of proficiency matching social norms and expectations, inconsistent with role expectations, or is out-of-sync with a
social identity Identity is the qualities, beliefs, personality traits, appearance, and/or expressions that characterize a person or group.Compare ''Collins Dictionary of Sociology'', quoted in In sociology, emphasis is placed on collective identity, in which ...
. The observer responsible categories are embarrassing when an individual becomes the focus of attention through: * Recognition, praise, criticism, correction, or teasing * Becomes initialized through being tripped or bumped, which is then associated with someone acting inappropriately * Has information revealed publicly to another individual or peer group


Etymology

The first known written occurrence of ''embarrass'' in English was in 1664 by Samuel Pepys in his diary. The word derives from the French word ''embarrasser'', "to block" or "obstruct", whose first recorded usage was by Michel de Montaigne in 1580. The French word was derived from the Spanish ''embarazar'', whose first recorded usage was in 1460 in ''Cancionero de Stúñiga'' (Songbook of Stúñiga) by Álvaro de Luna.Joan Corominas and José Pacual, "embarazar," ''Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico,'' (Gredos, 1980) Vol. II, p. 555-556. The Spanish word comes from the Portuguese ''embaraçar'', which is a combination of the
prefix A prefix is an affix which is placed before the stem of a word. Adding it to the beginning of one word changes it into another word. For example, when the prefix ''un-'' is added to the word ''happy'', it creates the word ''unhappy''. Particu ...
''em-'' (from Latin ''im-'' for "in-") with ''baraço'' or ''baraça'', "a noose" or "rope". ''Baraça'' originated before the Romans began their conquest of the
Iberian Peninsula The Iberian Peninsula (), ** * Aragonese and Occitan: ''Peninsula Iberica'' ** ** * french: Péninsule Ibérique * mwl, Península Eibérica * eu, Iberiar penintsula also known as Iberia, is a peninsula in southwestern Europe, defi ...
in 218 BC. Thus, ''baraça'' could be related to the Celtic word ''barr'', "tuft". (Celtic people actually settled much of Spain and Portugal beginning in the 8th century BC) However, it certainly is not directly derived from it, as the substitution of ''r'' for ''rr'' in Ibero-Romantic languages was not a known occurrence. The Spanish word may come from the Italian ''imbarazzare'', from ''imbarazzo'', "obstacle" or "obstruction". That word came from ''imbarrare'', "to block" or "bar", which is a combination of ''in-'', "in" with ''barra'', "bar" (from the
Vulgar Latin Vulgar Latin, also known as Popular or Colloquial Latin, is the range of non-formal registers of Latin spoken from the Late Roman Republic onward. Through time, Vulgar Latin would evolve into numerous Romance languages. Its literary counterpa ...
''barra'', which is of unknown origin). The problem with this theory is that the first known usage of the word in Italian was by Bernardo Davanzati (1529–1606), long after the word had entered Spanish.


In Judaism

Embarrassing another person is considered to be a serious sin in
Judaism Judaism ( he, ''Yahăḏūṯ'') is an Abrahamic, monotheistic, and ethnic religion comprising the collective religious, cultural, and legal tradition and civilization of the Jewish people. It has its roots as an organized religion in the ...
. Rabbis quoted in the
Babylonian Talmud The Talmud (; he, , Talmūḏ) is the central text of Rabbinic Judaism and the primary source of Jewish religious law ('' halakha'') and Jewish theology. Until the advent of modernity, in nearly all Jewish communities, the Talmud was the cen ...
state that embarrassing another person in public is akin to murder (literally "spilling blood"). Rabbi Naḥman bar Yitzḥak responds by noting how the analogy of "spilling blood" is apt since, when a person is embarrassed, their face becomes less flushed and more pale (after the initial flush).


See also

*
Blushing Blushing is the reddening of a person's face due to psychological reasons. It is normally involuntary and triggered by emotional stress associated with passion, embarrassment, shyness, fear, anger, or romantic stimulation. Severe blushing ...
* Cringe comedy * Criterion of embarrassment * Face (social concept) * Guilt * Guilty pleasure *
Humiliation Humiliation is the abasement of pride, which creates mortification or leads to a state of being humbled or reduced to lowliness or submission. It is an emotion felt by a person whose social status, either by force or willingly, has just dec ...
* Idiosyncrasy * Inferiority complex *
Modesty Modesty, sometimes known as demureness, is a mode of dress and deportment which intends to avoid the encouraging of sexual attraction in others. The word "modesty" comes from the Latin word '' modestus'' which means "keeping within measure".Jen ...
* Moral emotions * Personal distress * Self-deprecation *
Shame Shame is an unpleasant self-conscious emotion often associated with negative self-evaluation; motivation to quit; and feelings of pain, exposure, distrust, powerlessness, and worthlessness. Definition Shame is a discrete, basic emotion, d ...


References

Notes Sources *


External links


Bibliography of Embarrassment ResearchEmbarrassment Research Information
{{Authority control Bullying Emotions Psychological abuse