What makes us blush? Watching our own karaoke performance, for one. Researchers from Amsterdam asked volunteers aged 16-20 to sing songs like Hello by Adele, Let It Go from Frozen, All I Want For Christmas Is You by Mariah Carey and All The Things She Said by t.A.T.u. in front of a camera.
Participants exhibited signs of nervousness, such as smiling coyly, fidgeting and scratching their arms while singing.
A week later, the volunteers watched videos of their performances inside a brain scanner (MRI), and their blushing responses were measured by monitoring cheek temperature changes.
The study found that most participants blushed while watching themselves sing, with an increase in cheek temperature of about one degree Celsius.
Brain scans revealed increased activity in the cerebellum, a part of the brain associated with processing emotions, during blushing episodes.
The researchers argue that blushing is an automatic emotional response triggered by feeling exposed, rather than a result of cognitive self-reflection or thoughts about others' perceptions.
The study suggests that blushing serves as an alert mechanism for individuals to recognize factors affecting their social status.
Researchers aim to study blushing in young children who have not yet developed the cognitive skills to consider others' perceptions, to further support the theory that blushing is an automatic physiological response.
This article was written in collaboration with Generative AI news company Alchemiq
Sources: Futurism, Washington Post, Liberty Times, BBC, Toronto Sun, The Guardian.