Blushing May Signify Guilt

Revealing Effects of Blushing in Ambiguous Social Situations1

  • De Jong, Peter J.
  • Peters, Madelon L.
  • De Cremer, David

  • 2Department of Clinical and Developmental Psychology, Section Experimental Psychopathology Groningen, University of Groningen, The Netherlands

    3Department of Medical, Clinical, and Experimental Psychology, Maastricht University, Maastricht, The Netherlands

    4Department of Experimental Psychology, Maastricht University, Maastricht, The Netherlands

5Address all correspondence to Peter J. de Jong, Department of Clinical and Developmental Psychology, Section Experimental Psychopathology, University of Groningen, Grote Kruisstraat 2/1, 9712 TS Groningen, The Netherlands; e-mail: [email protected]

Motivation & Emotion 27(3):p 225-249, September 2003.

Although blushing after a social infraction can function as a remedial gesture, people generally consider blushing as an undesirable response. To address this apparent inconsistency, we tested the idea that blushing has remedial properties after clear-cut antecedent behaviors, but can undermine the actor's image in ambiguous situations. In Experiment 1, participants (N = 49) read vignettes referring to prototypical mishaps, transgressions, and ambiguous situations. In Experiment 2 (N = 58), we specifically varied the actor's intentionality while keeping the actor's behavior constant. In support of its alleged face-saving properties, blushing had remedial effects after obvious mishaps and voluntary transgressions. However, in ambiguous social situations and after transgressions that are ambiguous with respect to the actor's intentionality, blushing undermined the actor's trustworthiness.

Copyright ©2003 Kluwer Academic Publishers