What’s BETWEEN Embarrassment and Blushing? Robert Sapolsky’s Answer Will BREAK Your Brain

Описание: What’s BETWEEN Embarrassment and Blushing? Robert Sapolsky’s Answer Will BREAK Your Brain

You think embarrassment is something you feel.
A thought.
A little mental sting.
Then your face turns red.
Fine.
But why does your body react before you can think?
Why does your skin change color before you decide what it means?
Why do your cheeks betray you… without permission?
Most people don’t ask.
They say things like “embarrassment.”
Or “stress response.”
They repeat words.
But that’s not an answer.
When you really ask why…
you find something that changes how you see your own body.
Not as something that reacts to emotion…
but as the thing generating it.

SOURCE PACK

Flow scales with radius⁴ (the “10% radius → big jump” physics)

Claim: Blood flow through a vessel is proportional to the fourth power of radius (small diameter changes cause huge flow changes).

Source: CV Physiology — Determinants of Resistance to Flow (Poiseuille’s Equation)

The same radius⁴ rule, in textbook form

Claim: Poiseuille’s law: flow ∝ radius⁴, making diameter the dominant control knob in circulation.

Source: Michigan State Univ Open Textbook — College Physics: Poiseuille’s Law

Blushing = autonomic facial vasodilation (mechanism, not mood)

Claim: Facial blushing involves autonomic control of facial blood vessels and is linked to sympathetic vasodilator pathways in the face.

Source: Cambridge University Press — The Psychological Significance of the Blush: “The nature of the blush”

Primary evidence: sympathetic pathways actively mediate facial vasodilation + sweating

Claim: Facial flushing/blushing and emotional sweating are mediated through sympathetic pathways, supporting the “autonomic command” framing.

Source: Drummond (1987) Facial flushing and sweating mediated by the sympathetic… (PubMed)

Thermal imaging proof: blushing measurable on “invisible spectrum”

Claim: Blushing can be measured via infrared thermal imaging, capturing facial thermal patterns + visible color shifts during a compliment/social trigger.

Source: Ioannou et al. (2017) Seeing a Blush on the Visible and Invisible Spectrum (PMC)

Skin conductance timing: onset latency ~1–4 seconds (fast autonomic output)

Claim: Skin conductance response (SCR) is an autonomic measure with onset latency ~1–4 seconds and peak at 3–6 seconds after a stimulus.

Source: ScienceDirect Topics — Skin Conductance overview