TY - JOUR
T1 - Increased autonomic activation in vicarious embarrassment
AU - Müller-Pinzler, Laura
AU - Paulus, Frieder M
AU - Stemmler, Gerhard
AU - Krach, Sören
N1 - Copyright © 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
PY - 2012
Y1 - 2012
N2 - We studied the somatovisceral response pattern of vicarious embarrassment for someone else's inappropriate condition. Participants (N=54) were confronted with hand-drawn sketches depicting public situations and were instructed to rate the intensity of their vicarious embarrassment. The inappropriate condition varied according to the attribution of intentionality (absent/present) and awareness (absent/present). Irrespective of these attributions, participants reported stronger vicarious embarrassment in comparison to neutral situations. Across a set of eleven somatovisceral variables vicarious embarrassment elicited a pattern of increased autonomic activation which was modulated by the awareness of the protagonist about the ongoing norm violation. The somatovisceral response pattern matches previous findings for the first-person experience of embarrassment. Together, these results support the hypothesis that processes of perspective taking also mediate the vicarious experience of embarrassment.
AB - We studied the somatovisceral response pattern of vicarious embarrassment for someone else's inappropriate condition. Participants (N=54) were confronted with hand-drawn sketches depicting public situations and were instructed to rate the intensity of their vicarious embarrassment. The inappropriate condition varied according to the attribution of intentionality (absent/present) and awareness (absent/present). Irrespective of these attributions, participants reported stronger vicarious embarrassment in comparison to neutral situations. Across a set of eleven somatovisceral variables vicarious embarrassment elicited a pattern of increased autonomic activation which was modulated by the awareness of the protagonist about the ongoing norm violation. The somatovisceral response pattern matches previous findings for the first-person experience of embarrassment. Together, these results support the hypothesis that processes of perspective taking also mediate the vicarious experience of embarrassment.
U2 - 10.1016/j.ijpsycho.2012.07.183
DO - 10.1016/j.ijpsycho.2012.07.183
M3 - Journal articles
C2 - 22864257
SN - 0167-8760
VL - 86
SP - 74
EP - 82
JO - International Journal of Psychophysiology
JF - International Journal of Psychophysiology
IS - 1
ER -