Disarm embarrassing situations through foreign shame

Study shows behaviors that can help in embarrassing situations

Almost everyone knows embarrassing situations in public, you stumble, smeared, something falls or says something inappropriate. This often attracts the attention of the whole environment and sometimes even provides for amusement. While some people react to such situations with humor or indifference, others sink into the ground thinking and wanting to be in another place or another person. A new study dealt with the shame and identified behaviors that can relieve the shame.

A research team from Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania has conducted surveys and experiments to study how volunteers respond to embarrassing situations. The aim of the study was to find effective mechanisms to reduce the embarrassment in embarrassing situations. Because shame can be the cornerstone of health or financial problems, for example, if people are ashamed of certain STDs or debts and therefore try to hide the problem. The study results were published in the journal "Motivation and Emotion".

According to a recent study, it should help in embarrassing situations to look at themselves from the perspective of an anonymous observer. (Image: photoschmidt / fotolia.com)

Shame as an experiment

In a different experiment of the study, volunteers should, among other things, take part in surveys on sensitive health problems such as sexual diseases. In another experiment, the subjects were to judge a fictitious flat-film advertising film. This put the participants in potentially embarrassing situations that were then analyzed by psychologists.

Flatulence against the embarrassment

The commercial was shown in two versions. In one version, a man was shown who, in addition to the woman in whom he is recently in love, involuntarily releases his flatulence. In the other version, viewers were asked to put themselves in the man's position. While the subjects in the first version rather distanced themselves from the man, the viewers of the second version tended to be more compassionate and even more willing to buy the advertised product.

Which can help in embarrassing situations

"It's about breaking away from this embarrassing situation and realizing that observers will not judge you too hard," said Li Jiang, one of the study authors from Carnegie Mellon University's Center for Behavioral and Decision. The trick is to see yourself as an anonymous observer of the situation. This view offers a greater distance to the situation.

Not for everyone

The research suggests that people with enough practice can manage to respond with less shame in embarrassing situations when looking at themselves from the perspective of an anonymous observer. This also counts with the Fremdschämmen. However, according to the researchers, this is not possible for all people as it requires some self-attention, mindfulness and cognitive capacity.

Strong shame can have dire consequences

The scientists point out that embarrassment can have worse consequences than short-term discomfort. "In medical tests, people sometimes feel too embarrassed to divulge certain types of information," said Jiang. This leads to suboptimal results that may even be life threatening. Given the possible negative consequences, it is important to find ways to avoid embarrassment in this context. "Getting a distance to an embarrassing moment could be the trick," the researchers sum up. (Vb)