Increased autonomic activation in vicarious embarrassment

详细信息    查看全文

• 作者：Laura M¨¹ller-Pinzler ; Frieder M. Paulus ; Gerhard Stemmler ; S?ren Krach
• 关键词：Social pain ; Vicarious embarrassment ; Empathy ; Blushing ; Autonomic activation ; Social emotions
• 刊名：International Journal of Psychophysiology
• 出版年：2012
• 出版时间：October, 2012
• 年：2012
• 卷：86
• 期：1
• 页码：74-82
• 全文大小：705 K

文摘

We studied the somatovisceral response pattern of vicarious embarrassment for someone else's inappropriate condition. Participants (N = 54) were confronted with hand-drawn sketches depicting public situations and were instructed to rate the intensity of their vicarious embarrassment. The inappropriate condition varied according to the attribution of intentionality (absent/present) and awareness (absent/present). Irrespective of these attributions, participants reported stronger vicarious embarrassment in comparison to neutral situations. Across a set of eleven somatovisceral variables vicarious embarrassment elicited a pattern of increased autonomic activation which was modulated by the awareness of the protagonist about the ongoing norm violation. The somatovisceral response pattern matches previous findings for the first-person experience of embarrassment. Together, these results support the hypothesis that processes of perspective taking also mediate the vicarious experience of embarrassment.