Why Do People Blush?

Blushing has been described as a mental disorder which begins with overlapping mental attitudes, producing embarrassment and inability to function.It comes and goes almost instantaneously and is an involuntary act. A person can be made to laugh by being tickled, but there is no physical means by which one can cause another person to blush. Neither can blushing be termed a reflex action. Laughter and merriment can be feigned by actors on a stage but not a blush. Even as it cannot be brought forth at will, the will cannot prevent its appearance. In fact, to try to do so may cause one to blush all the more.

Strange as it may seem, as well as apparently contradicting some modern theories about blushing, the fact is that blind persons blush, even more readily than those enjoying sight. Deaf persons also blush. And most remarkable of all is the fact that even those blind and deaf blush, as did Laura Bridgman, who lost both her sight and hearing at the age of two. And of Helen Keller, who even earlier in life became both deaf and blind, we are told: "Her blushing can have no relation to looks or words of disapproval, connected either with her appearance or her conduct; yet she blushes just as girls do who see and hear, from the same causes, over the same parts of the body, and with the same experience of tingling." This report accords with the findings of some that even when alone a person may blush when visualizing himself in a situation in which he would ordinarily blush or when he happens to be reading something that embarrasses him.

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