What makes us feel embarrassed, like biologically?
In: Biology
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This is a really complicated question without a lot of good answers. What we do know is that embarrassment is mainly mediated by a brain structure called the ‘pregenual anterior cingulate cortex’, which is a small part of a brain system called the limbic system, which deals with processing emotions and factoring them into motivation and behavior. Essentially what will happen is your brain will check all of its current inputs (vision, touch, smell, etc.) against your memories. Based on these memories your brain will decide how your behavior should be modulated and the appropriate emotion to make that happen. Embarrassment is essentially saying ‘hey, in your past this situation has been detrimental to our or other people’s social standing or relationships.’ Your cingulate cortex would then take that information and feed it to (via other structures) your prefrontal cortex (which is where decisions will be made), and your parasympathetic/sympathetic nervous systems (which are responsible for the fight/flight vs. rest/digest states of your body). This essentially primes you to make a decision based on this emotional response, and prepares your body to carry out that decision.
Disclaimer: I’m not an expert here, just an undergraduate neuroscience major, and this is a mega oversimplification about something we really don’t understand perfectly. If anyone has any additions or corrections please go ahead.
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