Well, This is Embarrassing (and the Science Behind Why.)
Truth be told, there are many things I don’t care about. At all. Frivolities, I tell myself mimicking René Mathis’s voice in my head. Who watches this crap? This might be the dumbest thing I’ve ever seen. Who would care about this? Apparently, I would.
Let me explain.
Sunday, 11:34PM.
As I browse the last bit of the day’s headlines on my phone, a video catches my eye. I watch it. I can’t watch it comfortably for long. I finish watching it. Here’s the video in question, I’d like you to watch it.
Were you able to sit through the entire debacle without feeling anything? Did you feel nothing when Steve Harvey announced the wrong winner, watched her get crowned, then realized his mistake in front of millions of people before having to strip her of her title in front of everyone? If so, you may be a replicant. Did you instead watch this cringe-inducing moment through face-palming, fast-forwarding, or experiencing intense feelings of embarrassment? So did I.
As I said at the beginning, I do not care about Miss Universe. I have no connection to it, I don’t follow it, frankly I think the whole concept is idiotic yet for some reason I found myself feeling a mix of amusement, sadness, enjoyment, shame, and embarrassment while I watched it. But why?
Fremdschämen [German]— (reflexive, informal) to feel ashamed about something someone else has done; to be embarrassed because someone else has embarrassed himself.
In 2011, Dr. Sören Krach and fellow researchers from the Philipps-University Marburg in Germany investigated the phenomenon of subjective vicarious embarrassment and studied brain activity for clues. Through trials with over 600 participants evaluating embarrassing social situations combined with fMRI (brain imaging) which tracked the neural pathways where this processing occurred, they were able to establish an important link between the degree to which we experience vicarious embarrassment and our genetic ability to feel empathy.
Scientists have long known the importance of empathy. As Dr. Rich Hanson details, empathy is not commonly seen in the animal kingdom yet it is pervasive in human society. One theory of empathy postulates that as human evolution took place, the quality of empathy was naturally selected for as pair-bonding, social group size, and the need for teamwork to ensure survival increased. This meant that as our genetic ancestors reproduced, those that worked well with others in their social group by understanding the perspectives of others lived longer — long enough anyway to reproduce and pass along a genetic characteristic of empathy until it eventually became an essential trait within that population. Repeat this millions of times with millions of groups, and almost all humans now are born genetically predisposed to experience empathy. (It may also be anecdotally evidenced that two human parents who work well together in raising their offspring because of their strong interpersonal relationship and ability to empathize with each other are more likely to nurture that expression of empathy in their children through practicing it in their parenting.)
Previous studies in empathy have revealed that areas of our human brain associated with processing our own physical pain are activated when observers see another person in physically painful situations (such as undergoing medical procedures). More recently, it has been shown that “the same cortical network implicated in empathically feeling (physical) pain is also involved in processes of compassion for others’ social pain (i.e. states of social rejection).”
Dr. Krach and his colleagues’ 2011 study took this finding a step further from general empathy by investigating whether a person (observer) is able to experience vicarious embarrassment for another (scenario protagonist) regardless of whether or not that protagonist knew they were doing something embarrassing (aware vs. unaware and intentional vs. accidental). What the study found was that observers felt they were more embarrassed than the protagonist they were watching in all conditional scenarios that were posed except for one (where they felt the protagonist likely felt more embarrassed when they did something embarrassing on accident and became aware of it in front of other people.) But even in that scenario, participants reported feeling vicariously embarrassed for the other person in question, they just felt that it was probably less so than the protagonist was feeling themselves. In all other scenarios involving any combination of those two conditions — intentionality and awareness of the embarrassment —observers felt more embarrassed vicariously for another than they perceived the person being embarrassed likely felt themselves, even in situations when the embarrassed party did not seem at all affected.
The study also confirmed that when participants experienced vicarious embarrassment for others, the neural pathways of the brain’s “pain matrix” shown to be associated with physical and emotional pain are activated, explaining that physical sense of “cringe” that observers often feel.
Now, back to our regularly scheduled programming.
Dear Steve Harvey and the Miss Universe Pageant,
I thought I didn’t care about you, but as long as you keep publicly messing up, it turns out that I can’t help but care — It’s in my genes. Maybe that’s why we live in an age of reality programs, judged competitions, and keeping up with the TV-Trashians. We can’t help but feel a range of emotions as we observe others in situations that our brain tells us we are taking part in ourselves. I guess what I can do is try to direct that empathetic predisposition more productively by watching less “frivolities” and more quality productions. Read less tabloid headlines and more thought-provoking works. Maybe if I do that, I can use these vicarious emotions for more personal growth opportunities and less mouth-agape cringing experiences.
Sincerely,
T.
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