Chapter 56
Blushing
People Affected: everyone older than 24 months
Type of Emotion: autonomic involuntary expression
Trigger Emotions: humiliation stops pride
Facial Expression: face reddens
Key Feature: not triggered before 24 months
Key Feature: more frequently triggered in children and young women
Type of Emotion: autonomic involuntary expression
Trigger Emotions: humiliation stops pride
Facial Expression: face reddens
Key Feature: not triggered before 24 months
Key Feature: more frequently triggered in children and young women
Purpose
Blushing encourages others to mitigate your humiliation during trial-and-error learning.
Humiliation during trial-and-error learning can be permanently demotivating. If you are humiliated during an early attempt at public speaking, you may never try again.
Blushing encourages others not to laugh at you. Your blushing triggers compassion in others, which they stop by not laughing at you.
Trigger Emotions
Blushing encourages others to mitigate your humiliation during trial-and-error learning.
Humiliation during trial-and-error learning can be permanently demotivating. If you are humiliated during an early attempt at public speaking, you may never try again.
Blushing encourages others not to laugh at you. Your blushing triggers compassion in others, which they stop by not laughing at you.
Trigger Emotions
Blushing is triggered when humiliation stops pride. You will blush if you enter a party and everyone looks at your face and then at your crotch, where you notice a stain for the first time. Their attention triggers your pride. The stain triggers your humiliation.
Blushing is not triggered by humiliation alone. You would not blush if you did not notice your stained pants until you had returned home. You would still feel humiliation, but it would not be preceded by pride.
Humiliation stopping pride is a proxy for failure during trial-and-error learning. The rank spike required to produce this combination rarely occurs in other circumstances.
Blushing is not triggered before 24 months of age. Humiliation and pride are not triggered before 24 months.
Blushing is more frequently triggered in children. Children are more likely to experience the rank spikes associated with trial-and-error learning.
Blushing is more frequently triggered in young women. Infatuation makes women more prone to feel rank spikes. Everyone feels pride when a higher-ranking individual treats them like an equal. Young women also feel strong infatuation when a higher-ranking man courts them. The combination of strong pride and strong infatuation makes young women stumble conversationally. Their stumbling triggers their humiliation and stops their pride.
Facial Expression
Blushing is not triggered by humiliation alone. You would not blush if you did not notice your stained pants until you had returned home. You would still feel humiliation, but it would not be preceded by pride.
Humiliation stopping pride is a proxy for failure during trial-and-error learning. The rank spike required to produce this combination rarely occurs in other circumstances.
Blushing is not triggered before 24 months of age. Humiliation and pride are not triggered before 24 months.
Blushing is more frequently triggered in children. Children are more likely to experience the rank spikes associated with trial-and-error learning.
Blushing is more frequently triggered in young women. Infatuation makes women more prone to feel rank spikes. Everyone feels pride when a higher-ranking individual treats them like an equal. Young women also feel strong infatuation when a higher-ranking man courts them. The combination of strong pride and strong infatuation makes young women stumble conversationally. Their stumbling triggers their humiliation and stops their pride.
Facial Expression
Blushing is autonomic because it triggers compassion. If blushing could be voluntarily triggered, it would be used fraudulently. People would just blush whenever they made a rank-reducing mistake, instead of taking steps to avoid making the mistake.
Happiness Dissected is a more practical version of The Origin of Emotions.