Blushing is apparently unique to humans which researchers say is a a non-verbal signal of accountability, sincerity, and emotional intelligence.
BLUSHING is one of the few actions we try to hide.
Be it due to shyness, embarrassment or shame - when your face turns red, you would want to try to cover your face, wishing you were either thousands of kilometres away from the scene, or just let the earth swallow you whole.
But is it true that blushing is a trait unique to humans?
Verdict:
TRUE
While other animals may experience skin flushing due to excitement or fear, the blush of embarrassment is widely regarded as a phenomenon almost exclusive to human beings.
Its singularity prompted biologist Charles Darwin to famously call blushing 'the most peculiar and most human of all expressions'.
He even devoted an entire chapter to blushing in his book, 'The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals'. He concluded that blushing was a uniquely human characteristic that appeared to defy evolution for several reasons.
What makes it so peculiar is that it appears to serve no immediate survival advantage - but rather, it acts as an involuntary, public surrender of emotion.
However, far from being a sign of weakness, blushing has evolved to play a crucial role in human social interaction and bonding.
Researchers believe it acts as a non-verbal signal of accountability, sincerity, and emotional intelligence—a silent apology or admission of a social mistake.
Psychologist Ray Crozier of the University of East Anglia in UK suggests that blushing evolved as a means of enforcing social codes.
By visibly reacting to a social misstep, people show others that they recognise the transgression and are "paying the price" for it.
Crozier was reported telling the BBC that embarrassment displays emotional intelligence.
"A prerequisite for embarrassment is to be able to feel how others feel - you have to be empathetic, intelligent to the social situation," he said.
This public display of vulnerability can actually elicit empathy and forgiveness from observers, thereby strengthening social cohesion.
According to Dr Gary Small, a leading expert in brain science, blushing serves a vital function for survival in social groups.
"Blushing elicits empathy from the observer. It builds bonds. That’s key for human survival," he said.
By signaling that a person is sincere and trustworthy, a blush helps repair a social rift, protecting the individual from the far greater social "pain" of rejection or ostracism from the group.
Researchers studying blushing have found that blushing may communicate a sincere apology better than other mannerisms.
According to a report in Reader's Digest, a 2020 study tested this idea by sharing a story of a social situation— in one example, they explained that someone had been caught in a lie—and then showed pictures of the faces of people involved.
The pictures featured both blushing and non-blushing faces.
Researchers asked the study participants to judge how embarrassed, sincere or trustworthy they felt the people in the pictures were. In the end, after three different experiments, researchers found the blushing faces were most likely to be rated as the most embarrassed as well as the most sincere and trustworthy.
If you learned something about blushing today, don't be shy, and share this trivia with a friend.
References:
1. https://science.howstuffworks.com/blush.htm
2. https://creation.com/en/articles/blushing
3. https://www.rd.com/article/why-do-people-blush/
