Embarrasment

[Lupin_the_3rd]

what causes us to feel embarrassed? Why would it be necessary for our minds to evolve the idea of embarrasment?

[Omeganitros]

I think embarrasment is a style of learning that keeps us from doing stupid things that make us look like idiots. And then if we do something stupid, embrassment kicks in and teaches you not to do stupid things like whatever you just did. Experiencing and learning.

[Lupin_the_3rd]

but most of the things that embarrass you are hardly stupid. How would embarrasment help us to survive? After all, embarassment has been around for a while. Do you see other animals get embarassed?

[Anticrombie0909]

Embarassment probably evolved with intelligence. The bible says that it, in essence, was first esablished when Adam and Eve ate of the tree of knowledge, and they discovered their nakedness and felt ashamed for it.

Embarrassment is defined in one moment of my life. When I was at school telling my friends about the Ultimate Revenge video at Ebaumsworld (click http://www.ebaumsworld.com/homebase.html to watch, extremely funny), when a teacher comes and sits down right next to me at the exact moment I go "I'm gonna fuck your mom. Yeah, your mom and me? We're gonna have sex." Didn't turn out well.

[AlbinoLime]

I think Embarassment is mostly an involuntary reaction. Kinda like what anticrombie was talking about, he may have felt embarassed because he thought that the teacher would have lost some respect for him.

[Lupin_the_3rd]

my question still hasn't been answered yet though

why have humans evolved to the idea of embarassment, whereas no other being on the planet does

[Anonymous]

It's a biproduct of out minds desire to proparate ourselfs partly through our power over other people, and a whole bunch of things have led to certain things being socially acceptable. When we demonstrate a weakness the feeling of embarassment maybe shows us our power being lost. Actually, now that I reread it, that's b=pretty bs, but w/e

Embarassment goes along with discretion, and without discretion and control, a person would never get laid, henceforth why people like these do not make it through the evelutionary chain.

[alainbryden]

^Dat was me

[AlbinoLime]

I have seen animals act the same way as humans when they are embarassed. So maybe you are wrong about saying that humans are the only animals that can feel embarassed.

[alainbryden]

that would only be because they're trained to act that way. Embarassment requires sentience - I agree.

[Varia]

Well, part of it is genetic.
Person A goes to jump off the high dive, but is scared and it makes him feel bad.
Person B goes to jump off the high dive and has the best time of his life.
It's due to the release of certain chemicals in the brain that stimulate positive or negative feedback in a person.

It doesn't really answer your question, but it's a start.

[tristia]

I would all think it all goes back to early in human history where that one human did something unacceptable or different and was outcasted for it. Because humans have reasoning... it felt ashamed, or emberassed because it did something outside of the norm that basically in escence got it in trouble or punished. Then it becomes a learning tool as to what you should and shouldnt do again.

Think about it, you say something about one of your friends and it just so happens they are standing right behind you, they either laugh at you or get angry with you, you get emberassed. Its kind of the same idea. Then you know to look over your shoulder next time.

Its because humans use reasoning to learn, do something stupid, get emberassed, know not to do it again, you reason that you shoudnt because you didn't like the feeling you had when you first screwed up.

just my take on it.

[Cenright]

I think of embarrassment as succeptibility to peer pressure. We wonder about how others think of us, and do not want to look bad in the eyes of others. It is good that we have this. You can always tell that the people without out this are the stupid, rude, or hateful people. How many people are embarrassed whe they are drunk?