Blushing

What Is Blushing?

Blushing results from an increase in superficial facial blood volume: blood vessels in the skin dilate, and red blood cells color the skin red. The area of skin that can blush is usually restricted to the face, ears, and neck, and in rare cases, the upper body. This dilation of the blood vessels is involuntary. Stress can increase the activity in the autonomic nervous system. Blushing appears to be an involuntary sympathetic nervous system response.

One ironic effect of the fear of blushing is that the fear itself can increase the activity of the autonomic nervous system, thus increasing the likelihood of blushing. The more you are afraid of blushing in front of someone important, the more likely it is that a compliment from that person will deeply color your face red. This may turn into a vicious circle.

Actually, the reason why we blush isn't known. Despite how common blushing is, it has received very little scientific attention. Most studies about blushing have been conducted by psychologists, and the scant findings so far suggest that blushing is a response to undesired social attention.

Self-consciousness is the only feeling universally associated with blushing. Other emotions, such as embarrassment, gratitude, or pleasure, may accompany this feeling of conspicuousness. In support of this hypothesis, blushing behavior first becomes common in children of kindergarten age, when they begin to develop a "social self" and interact with others in more complex social situations. Most people, however, do not remember blushing before the age of five.

Differences in blushing behavior exist. Between men and women for example, women are more likely than men to blush in response to a compliment, and between people with different cultural backgrounds, people from a European culture blush more readily than those from an Asian culture.


And finally, it is rare for a person to blush when entirely alone, regardless of how silly or inappropriate their behavior, suggesting a social component.

Humans are the only animals who blush.

The social purpose of blushing is unknown. One possibility is that blushing is a nonverbal means of saving face. It may be meant to mitigate the negative reactions of others.

Studies have shown that people react more favorably to those who have made a mistake when they blush. Studies also suggest that when people blush and they believe it is not observed, they engage in more overt, voluntary behaviors designed to elicit a positive response in embarrassing situations, for example, they may act more apologetic.

Illogical responses.
Why a response to unwanted social attention results in the physiological response of blushing is still unclear, particularly since blushing tends to draw attention toward the blusher.

How the response may have arisen evolutionary is even more unclear, because it is believed that all groups of people arose from dark-skinned African ancestors, for whom blushing would be hard to see. It is possible that facial vasodilation arose as a physiological response for some other reason and then became associated with certain behaviors or social contexts.


Blushing occurs in response to social cues, but it is an innate response. All humans blush, though an individual's propensity toward blushing may vary.

Charles Darwin, called blushing "the most peculiar and most human of all expressions." Almost everybody has blushed at one time or another.

On the other hand, blushing may also occur in the absence of an embarrassing event, and some people can feel terribly embarrassed without blushing. For some people, however, blushing has become the central focus of their embarrassment.

When blushing becomes a problem.

Physiologically, blushing is a harmless reaction.

Blushing becomes a psychological problem, however, when a frequent blusher becomes socially phobic (intensely fearful) about blushing.

People with fear of blushing experience the blush as exceptionally distressing and anxiety provoking. Out of fear of blushing, they avoid social situations and are willing to accept severe negative consequences of that avoidance. Others experience very high discomfort in normally enjoyable situations.