Changes in non‐verbal behaviour during embarrassment

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.