Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Fear of Blushing: No Overestimation of Negative Anticipated Interpersonal Effects, But a High-Subjective Probability of Blushing

  • Original Paper
  • Published:
Cognitive Therapy and Research Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

To explain blushing phobics’ fearful preoccupation with blushing, this study investigated the anticipated consequences of blushing when considering the interpersonal influences of displaying a blush. Using a vignette study approach, participants (N = 48, mean age 20.47, and SD 4.44) with variable levels of fear of blushing were instructed to imagine that they did or did not blush in several situations, and were asked to indicate their expectations of an observer’s judgment. Irrespective of their fear of blushing, participants generally attributed negative effects to their blush in these situations. This finding sustains the idea that people dislike blushing due to the anticipated influence of the blush on other’s judgments about the self, but does not support the idea that fear of blushing is fueled by an overestimation of these negative effects of blushing. Meanwhile, high-fearfuls did report a relatively high-subjective probability of displaying a blush in these situations. Expecting to blush in situations in which people generally anticipate that blushing elicits a negative observer’s judgment, may well contribute to blushing fearfuls’ preoccupation with blushing.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1

Similar content being viewed by others

Notes

  1. To verify if all individual vignettes describing personal exposure were indeed successful in eliciting anticipated revealing effects of blushing in our participants, we analyzed the effects of blushing per vignette. This analysis showed that indeed all individual vignettes had revealing effects (for all individual vignettes the mean difference between blush and no blush was significant at the p < 0.001 level).

References

  • Bögels, S. M., Alberts, M., & de Jong, P. J. (1996). Self-consciousness, self-focused attention, blushing propensity and fear of blushing. Personality and Individual Differences, 21, 573–581.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bögels, S. M., Mulkens, S., & de Jong, P. J. (1997). Task concentration training and fear of blushing. Journal of Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, 4, 251–258.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bögels, S. M., Rijsemus, W., & de Jong, P. J. (2002). Self-focused attention and social anxiety: The effects of experimentally heightened self-awareness on fear, blushing, cognitions, and social skills. Cognitive Therapy and Research, 26, 461–472.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bögels, S. M., & Reith, W. (1999). Validity of two questionnaires to assess social fears: The Dutch social phobia and anxiety inventory and the fear of blushing, trembling, and sweating questionnaire. Journal of Psychopathology and Behavioural Assesment, 21, 51–66.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bögels, S. M., & Scholing, A. (1995). Behandeling van angst om te blozen, trillen of zweten. Tijdschrift voor Psychotherapie, 21, 248–267.

    Google Scholar 

  • Castelfranchi, C., & Poggi, I. (1990). Blushing as a discourse: Was Darwin wrong? In W. R. Crozier (Ed.), Shyness and embarrassment: Perspectives from social psychology (pp. 230–251). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Crozier, W. R. (2000). Blushing, social anxiety and exposure. In W. R. Crozier (Ed.), Shyness: Development, consolidation and change (pp. 154–170). New York, NY, US: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Crozier, W. R. (2001). Blushing and the exposed self: Darwin revisited. Journal for the Theory of Social Behaviour, 31, 61–72.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Crozier, W. R. (2004). Self-consciousness, exposure, and the blush. Journal for the Theory of Social Behaviour, 34, 1–17.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Darwin, C. (1989). The expression of the emotions in man and animals (pp. 163–168). New York: New York University Press (original work published in 1872).

  • de Jong, P. J. (1999). Communicative and remedial effects of social blushing. Journal of Nonverbal Behavior, 23, 197–218.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • de Jong, P. J., & Peters, M. L. (2005). Do blushing phobics overestimate the undesirable effects of their blushing? Behaviour Research and Therapy, 43, 747–758.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • de Jong, P. J., Peters, M. L., & De Cremer, D. (2003). Blushing may signify guilt: Revealing effects of blushing in ambiguous social situations. Motivation and Emotion, 27, 225–249.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • de Jong, P. J., Peters, M. L., De Cremer, D., & Vranken, C. (2002). Blushing after a moral transgression in a prisoner’s dilemma game: Appeasing or revealing? European Journal of Social Psychology, 32, 627–644.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • de Jong, P. J., Peters, M. L. , Dijk, C., Nieuwenhuis, E., Kempe, H., & Oelerink, J. (2006). Fear of blushing: The role of the expected influence of displaying a blush on others’ judgments. Cognitive Therapy and Research, 30, 623–634.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dijk, C., & de Jong, P. J. (2006). Surgical treatment for blushing. The Lancet, 367, 2059.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Drott, C., Claes, G., & Olsson-Rex, L. (2002). Facial blushing treated by sympathetic denervation—longlasting benefits in 831 patients. Journal of Cosmetic Dermatology, 1, 115–119.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Drummond, P. D. (1997). The effects of adrenergic blockade on blushing and facial flushing. Psychophysiology, 34, 163–168.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Drummond, P. D. (2001). The effect of true and false feedback on blushing in women. Personality and Individual Differences, 30, 413–425.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Drummond, P. D., Camacho, L., Formentin, N., Heffernan, T. D., Williams, F., & Zekas, T. E. (2003). The impact of verbal feedback about blushing on social discomfort and facial blood flow during embarrassing tasks. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 41, 413–425.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Edelmann, R. J. (2001). Blushing. In L. E. Alden, & W. R. Crozier (Eds.), International handbook of social anxiety: Concepts, research and interventions relating to the self and shyness (pp. 301–323). New York, NY, US: Wiley.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fahlén, T. (1997). Core symptom pattern of social phobia. Depression and Anxiety, 4, 223–232.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Foa, E. B., Franklin, M. E., Perry, K. J., & Herbert, J. D. (1996). Cognitive biases in generalized social phobia. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 105, 433–439.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Gerlach A. L., Wilhelm F. H., Gruber K., & Roth W. T. (2001). Blushing and physiological arousability in social phobia. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 110, 247–258.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Heinrichs, N., & Hofmann, S. G. (2001). Information processing in social phobia: A critical review. Clinical Psychology Review, 21, 751–770.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Leary, M. R. (1983). A brief version of the fear of negative evaluation scale. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 9, 371–375.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Leary, M. R., Britt, T. W., Cutlip, W. D. II, & Templeton, J. L. (1992). Social blushing. Psychological Bulletin, 112, 446–460.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Leary, M. R., Landel, J. L., & Patton, K. M. (1996). The motivated expression of embarrassment following a self-presentational predicament. Journal of Personality, 64, 619–636.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Leary, M. R., & Meadows, S. (1991). Predictors, elicitors, and concomitants of social blushing. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 60, 254–262.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Marks, I. M., & Mathews, A. M. (1979). Brief standard self-rating for phobic patients. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 17, 263–267.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Mauss I. B., Wilhelm, F. H., & Gross, J. J. (2004). Is there less social anxiety then meets the eye? Emotion experience, expression, and bodily responding. Cognition and Emotion, 18, 631–662.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mulkens, S., Bögels, S. M., de Jong, P. J., & Louwers, J. (2001). Fear of blushing: Effects of task concentration training versus exposure in vivo on fear and physiology. Journal of Anxiety Disorders, 15, 413–432.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mulkens, S., de Jong, P. J., & Bögels, S. M. (1997). High blushing propensity: Fearful preoccupation or facial coloration? Personality and Individual Differences, 22, 817–824.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mulkens, S. M., de Jong, P. J., Dobbelaar, A., & Bögels, S. M. (1999). Fear of blushing: Fearful preoccupation irrespective of facial coloration. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 37, 1119–1128.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Neto, F. (1996). Correlates of social blushing. Personality and Individual Differences, 20, 365–373.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Nicolaou, M., Paes, T., & Wakelin, S. (2006). Blushing: An embarrassing condition, but treatable. The Lancet, 367, 1297–1298.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Parkison, B., & Manstead, A. S. R. (1993). Making sense of emotions in stories and social life. Cognition and Emotion, 7, 295–323.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pollentier, S. (1992). Wie aus der Erythropobie eine soziale Phobie wurde: Eine Ubersicht der klinisch-diagnostischen problematic. Nervenarzt, 63, 28–33.

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Scholing, A., & Emmelkamp, P. M. (1993). Cognitive and behavioural treatments of fear of blushing, sweating, or trembling. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 31, 155–170.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Semin, G. R. (1982). The transparency of the sinner. European Journal of Social Psychology, 12, 173–180.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Shields, S. A., Mallory, M. E., & Simon, A. (1990). The experience and symptoms of blushing as a function of age and reported frequency of blushing. Journal of Nonverbal Behavior, 14, 171–187.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Stopa, L., & Clark, D. M. (2000). Social phobia and the interpretation of events. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 39, 273–283.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Voncken M. J., & Bögels S. M. (2006). Physiological responses, anxious appearance, and social skills in social phobia. In Afraid of being disliked. Voncken M.University Press Maastricht (Ph.D. thesis), pp. 47–77.

  • Voncken, M. J., Bögels, S. M., & de Vries, K. (2003). Interpretation and judgmental biases in social phobia. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 41, 1481–1488.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

We are grateful to Madelon Peters, Femke Buwalda, and Marisol Vonken for their comments on an earlier version of this manuscript, to Evelien Nieuwenhuis, Henk Kempe, and Julia Oelerink for their help with conducting the study, and to Marieke Timmermans for her statistical advice and her assistance in analyzing the data. The first author was supported by a fellowship of the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO, Grant No. 016.005.019).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Clinical and Developmental Psychology, University of Groningen, Grote Kruisstraat 2/1, 9712 TS, Groningen, The Netherlands

    Corine Dijk & Peter J. de Jong

Authors
  1. Corine Dijk
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Peter J. de Jong
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Corine Dijk.

Appendix

Appendix

Possible exposure to something personal

  • City. Meeting a boy that you like but you do not want him to know this.

  • Party. At a friend’s party, the conversation suddenly turns to STDs.

  • Presentation. You are afraid to show your nervousness during a presentation to teachers.

  • Colleague. A colleague tells you she knows that you have complained about her; you try to deny this.

Negative Judgment by Others

  • Happy Birthday. During class you have to stand on a chair and the whole class of students sings “Happy Birthday” to you.

  • Wedding. You are Master of Ceremonies at your best friend’s wedding and you have to give a speech.

  • Clothes. You get a compliment from a friend about your clothes. Then everybody focuses their attention on you and confirms that you look good.

  • Daydreaming. You are daydreaming during a formal lecture. Suddenly the teacher asks you something.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Dijk, C., de Jong, P.J. Fear of Blushing: No Overestimation of Negative Anticipated Interpersonal Effects, But a High-Subjective Probability of Blushing. Cogn Ther Res 33, 59–74 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10608-007-9145-y

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10608-007-9145-y

Keywords

Search

Navigation