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intentionally,” Dijk speculates, blushing

is an authentic sign of embarrassment.

And embarrassment, according to Keltner,

is a moral emotion. It shows humility,

modesty, and a desire to avoid aggression

and make peace. It’s not about

isolating the person who feels ashamed

(which is how it sometimes feels to

easy blushers), but about bringing

people together.

Keltner has tracked the roots of human

embarrassment and found that

after many primates fight, they try to

make up. They do this partly by making

gestures of embarrassment of the kind

we see in humans—looking away,

which acknowledges wrongdoing and

the intention to stop; lowering the

head, which shrinks one’s size; and

pressing the lips together, a sign of inhibition.

These gestures in humans

have been called “acts of devotion,”

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