Changes in non‐verbal behaviour during embarrassment

Abstract

Embarrassment was induced experimentally in a videotaped interview by a failure of meshing (an interviewer revealed something unexpected about himself which was designed to embarrass the interviewee). After the interview the interviewees' self‐assessments of their emotions at three points during the interview were obtained. Fifteen of the 22 subjects reported embarrassment at the interviewer's revelation. The level of eye‐contact for these subjects decreased significantly at this point in the interview relative to the preceding and subsequent levels, whereas body motion and speech disturbances increased. The seven non‐embarrassed subjects showed a significant increase in eye‐contact at this point but no change in body motion or speech disturbances. Whilst this experiment provides a methodology for studying embarrassment the part played by the non‐verbal correlates in the communication of embarrassment requires further investigation.

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