Signs of appeasement: evidence for the distinct displays of embarrassment, amusement, and shame

According to appeasement hypotheses, embarrassment should have a distinct nonverbal display that is more readily perceived when displayed by individuals from lower status groups. The evidence from 5 studies supported these two claims. The nonverbal behavior of embarrassment was distinct from a related emotion (amusement), resembled the temporal pattern of facial expressions of emotion, was uniquely related to self-reports of embarrassment, and was accurately identified by observers who judged the spontaneous displays of various emotions. Across the judgment studies, observers were more accurate and attributed more emotion to the embarrassment displays of female and AfricanAmerican targets than those of male and Caucasian targets. Discussion focused on the universality and appeasement function of the embarrassment display. Since universal facial expressions of a limited set of emotions were first documented (Ekman & Friesen, 1971; Ekman, Sorenson, & Friesen, 1969; Izard, 1971), sparse attention has been given to facial expressions of other emotions. The resulting lacuna in the field—that the emotions with identified displays are fewer (7 to 10) than the states that lay people (Fehr & Russell, 1984) and emotion theorists (Ekman, 1992; Izard, 1977; Tomkins, 1963, 1984) label as emotions—presents intriguing possibilities. Displays of other emotions may be blends of other emotional displays, unidentifiable, or may await discovery.