Why do humans cover their mouths when they’re surprised, startled, embarrassed, etc.?
In: Other
A simple defense mechanism to keep anything that is scary out of our mouth. Same goes for when you something gross you scrunch your face and turn your head slightly to avoid getting anything on you.
This is a cultural question. It’s not innate or genetic but a learned behavior based on where you’re from. All of those original studies on power posing have been debunked. (Ex we hold our hands in the air as a shared human expression of achievement)
For most Americans covering your mouth is more of a way to create a quite literal physical boundary from you and the item. It’s an act of distancing yourself from the embarrassing moment. Some Asian cultures reward this behavior in women because it’s “cuter” and is learned by others, but you won’t see this in males. Again this is a generalization but fairly normal in media and culture. Media is the easiest way we see normalization of behavior across populations because what we see influences us. “Why do so many young girls have gray hair?” It’s because they saw someone they identified with and copied their behavior and then it became normal. Trends that die are labeled as fads. The trends that survive are just part of our culture and what other generations will mimic.
TLDR; Humans cover their mouths if they’re in a culture where others cover their mouths.
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