People usually enjoy interacting with persons who are physically attractive or socially powerful. However, the embarrassment they happen to have experienced in an earlier, unrelated situation can sometimes inhibit them from doing so. Feelings of embarrassment increase individuals’ concern about their ability to present themselves in a positive light and activate more general concepts associated with this concern. Therefore, once these concepts become accessible in memory, they can lead the individuals to avoid interacting with a person on whom they wish to make a good impression (for example, a physically attractive member of the opposite sex or a person who has social power over them). Moreover, this is true even though the person has no knowledge of the incident that had led to their embarrassment. These effects are particularly pronounced among individuals with an interdependent self-construal. The effects are unique to embarrassment and do not generalize to other self-conscious emotions.
Genetic Mapping of Social Interaction Behavior in B6/MSM Consomic Mouse Strains
