Intrapersonal and Interpersonal Concomitants of Facial Blushing during Everyday Social Encounters

Facial blushing may usually be undesirable but may have an ameliorative function for some individuals under some circumstances. Researchers have studied the blush in laboratory settings, but not in daily life. In the present research, conducted with young adults, we employed for the first time an event-contingent recording method for assessing facial blushing during everyday social encounters. Blushing was associated with feeling embarrassed, ashamed, and exposed. These findings, though based on correlational analyses, are consistent with the idea that blushing is often unpleasant and can be maladaptive, and may contribute to the common belief that blushing is an undesirable response. Frequent blushers generally reported lower levels of dominant behavior, higher levels of submissive behavior, and perceived their social interaction partners as more powerful and less affiliative. This was independent of whether they blushed or not, suggesting that altered social behaviors and perceptions are associated with blushing-associated traits rather than with the blushing s
tate. The experience of the blush varied as a function of the frequency with which a person blushed. Blushing was associated with higher levels of shame in frequent blushers than in infrequent blushers. In infrequent blushers, blushing was associated with higher levels of pleasant affect, suggesting that for infrequent blushers the blush may occur in positive social encounters.

面部潮红（facial blushing）通常被认为是不受欢迎的，但在某些情境下对部分个体可能具有改善作用。过往研究多在实验室环境下对脸红行为展开探讨，却鲜少关注日常场景中的脸红现象。本研究以年轻成年群体为研究对象，首次采用事件触发式记录法来评估日常社交互动过程中的面部潮红行为。研究发现，脸红与尴尬、羞愧及被审视感的情绪体验显著相关。尽管本研究结论基于相关分析，但结果与“脸红通常令人不适且具有适应不良性”的观点一致，同时也印证了大众普遍认为脸红是一种不受欢迎的反应的认知。高频脸红者通常报告自身的支配性行为水平更低、顺从性行为水平更高，且认为其社交互动对象更具掌控力、亲和性更低。上述关联与个体是否实际发生脸红无关，这表明社交行为与认知模式的改变，与脸红相关的人格特质而非脸红本身的状态存在关联。个体的脸红体验会随脸红频率的不同而产生差异。与低频脸红者相比，高频脸红者在脸红时体验到的羞愧感更强。而低频脸红者在脸红时则伴随更强烈的愉悦情绪体验，这表明低频脸红者的脸红行为可能发生在积极的社交互动场景中。