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| | Terms of embarrassment | Susan Maushart | The Australian (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-13) |
 | | Theory suggests there are three sub-types of embarrassing situations: faux-pas (when your mother blurts out something stupid at a parent-teacher conference – her name, perhaps); centre-of-attention scenarios (being selected as the stooge in a street theatre stunt, or a marriage to Maushart); and so-called “sticky situations” (seminal examples abound). |
 | | According to Christine R. Harris in American Scientist, embarrassment is ubiquitous in human society, and even in selected animal groups (the royal family, the NRL, etc), and is believed to have evolved as a social counterpart to physical pain. |
 | | Furthermore, studies say that people who show their embarrassment – averting their gaze, covering their face with their hands, returning to the private sector – are judged less harshly than those who don’t. |
| www.theaustralian.news.com.au /story/0,20867,20696275-17063,00.html (430 words) |
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