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Why do people blush? · Stuff You Should Know

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  Speaker 1: Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve Camray.
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  Speaker 1: It's ready. Are you welcome to Stuff you should know
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  Speaker 1: from How stuff works dot Com? Stuff you should know
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  Speaker 1: I'm Josh Clark, a staff writer here at how Stuff
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  Speaker 1: Works dot Com. With me is my permanent co host.
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  Speaker 1: We just got the news. Chuck's here for good Charles,
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  Speaker 1: Chuck Bryant, Chuck, welcome. I hope you enjoyed that seat,
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  Speaker 1: because you're not getting mine. That is your seat. I do.
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  Speaker 1: It fits my my back end well, and I'm glad
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  Speaker 1: to be here. I'm glad. I'm Chuck. I hate to
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  Speaker 1: tell you this, but your fly is open. Oh yeah, wow,
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  Speaker 1: maybe you should do something about Sorry you guys. You
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  Speaker 1: guys can't see this because this is just an audio podcast.
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  Speaker 1: But Chuck is blushing with embarrassment. I've never seen Chuck
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  Speaker 1: blush before. It's okay, Chuck, I won't judge This is
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  Speaker 1: not a locker room though, so I wasn't prepared for that.
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  Speaker 1: Handle your business and we'll wait a second. Every show
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  Speaker 1: everything's good, So check that that actually brings to mind.
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  Speaker 1: Um an article I wrote, why do people Blush? Did
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  Speaker 1: you prep for this podcast? Did you read it? I did? Uh?
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  Speaker 1: It was It was a good one, Josh. I thought
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  Speaker 1: that it's pretty interesting. Blushing is one of those um
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  Speaker 1: things that people probably don't think about very often. Everyone blushes,
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  Speaker 1: and uh, it's exclusive to humans all of no other
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  Speaker 1: animal on the planet that blushes exactly. But um, we
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  Speaker 1: don't we we know how we blush, but we don't
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  Speaker 1: exactly know why we blush. And isn't that weird that
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  Speaker 1: that something is ubiquitous and seemingly normal is actually abnormal?
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  Speaker 1: You know? Do you want to tell the folks at
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  Speaker 1: home how we blush? Uh? Yeah, well it has to
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  Speaker 1: do with the uh, the old sympathetic system, which is
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  Speaker 1: also what controls the fight or flight syndrome or not syndrome.
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  Speaker 1: But yeah, fans of no so the fight or flights bonds.
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  Speaker 1: I wanted to say that last time to so fans
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  Speaker 1: of stuff you should know are will probably be familiar
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  Speaker 1: with our podcasts on hysterical strength, which I know all
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  Speaker 1: about the fight or flight response. It's the same thing.
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  Speaker 1: You're your veins and dilate and more blood gets pumping,
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  Speaker 1: and your your pupils uh get larger, and then all
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  Speaker 1: of a sudden you find that you might be able
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  Speaker 1: to throw a lawn more off your granddaughter like Boots
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  Speaker 1: he did, Hello Boots, Hello Boots. So yeah, and one
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  Speaker 1: of the other things is that your your blood vessels dilate, right, right,
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  Speaker 1: which is the case in blushing, right, Except the thing
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  Speaker 1: is the blood vessels in your cheeks that actually become flushed.
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  Speaker 1: Our veins um and oddly, veins don't usually respond at
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  Speaker 1: all to adrenaline, but for some reason, the veins in
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  Speaker 1: your cheeks too, and those are the only veins in
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  Speaker 1: your body that flush or dilate when your fight or
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  Speaker 1: flight response goes off. I mean, what the heck is that? Yeah, well,
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  Speaker 1: that's kind of weird because I mean it's what everyone
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  Speaker 1: would see. I mean, if your kneecaps blood, no one
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  Speaker 1: would ever know if you're embarrassed, So it happens in
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  Speaker 1: your face for maybe for a reason, maybe not. But
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  Speaker 1: there are some theories about why we blush like what Well,
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  Speaker 1: one of them is that it is in fact on
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  Speaker 1: the face so other people can see it, because it's
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  Speaker 1: a form of public apology for a faux pa you
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  Speaker 1: might have had, or if you stuck your foot in
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  Speaker 1: your mouth. Um, your blushing is a way to kind
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  Speaker 1: of be contrite and say, you know, I'm embarrassed and
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  Speaker 1: I'm sorry. I shouldn't have said that without actually saying that.
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  Speaker 1: So it's like a physical example of your emotional intellect.
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  Speaker 1: You're saying, I'm aware of this. Don't don't beat me,
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  Speaker 1: you know, start a fight with me. It's sort of
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  Speaker 1: like the same thing that happens. Like if your dog
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  Speaker 1: hikes his leg on your dining room table and you
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  Speaker 1: walk in the room, it's a very good chance your
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  Speaker 1: dog might you know, lower his head and kind of
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  Speaker 1: back out of the room slowly, or roll over and
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  Speaker 1: show its belly. Yeah, show it's belly. It's a kind
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  Speaker 1: of a similar thing. I got you, okay, now, Um,
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  Speaker 1: I don't buy that one. I think it's kind of
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  Speaker 1: a clumsy theory. It's not my favorite. I've got a
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  Speaker 1: favorite theory with blushing. You want here it, We'll be
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  Speaker 1: that way, Josh, I like I'd love to hear yours.
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  Speaker 1: My favorite is n p A. UM. It's it's this
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  Speaker 1: obscure uh theory about human personalities, and the theory is
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  Speaker 1: that all of them are created based on the foundation
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  Speaker 1: of narcissism, perfectionism, and aggression. Right and um, all personalities
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  Speaker 1: can be explained through these three um outlooks or views
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  Speaker 1: of life. UM. The uh there should be a balance
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  Speaker 1: between the three, and the more balanced it is probably
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  Speaker 1: the more normal you are. People who have almost just
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  Speaker 1: one exclusively tend to be schizophrenic that kind of thing. No, no, no, no,
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  Speaker 1: well you know, so with m p A or under
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  Speaker 1: the mp A theory, blushing is actually am It is
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  Speaker 1: a fight or flight response, but you're actually becoming enraged.
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  Speaker 1: You're not embarrassed, your your narcissism has been affronted, right,
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  Speaker 1: I gotta tell you, is the narcissist the mp A
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  Speaker 1: theory really makes sense to me? Yeah, I felt that
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  Speaker 1: way before too. I think the rage a little less
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  Speaker 1: or sorry, a little more than the embarrassment, right Yeah, So,
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  Speaker 1: I mean maybe we're just confusing it. Who knows. I mean, really,
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  Speaker 1: at this point, as far as we know about blushing,
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  Speaker 1: you or I could come up with a pretty adequate
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  Speaker 1: theory for it, right. Maybe we'll publish one soon, maybe so.
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  Speaker 1: But the fact is we all blush. There's no denying
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  Speaker 1: that exactly. Now. You can learn more about it on
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