The truth about blushing: why we do it, how we can resist it – and why it’s actually good for us

Humans are the only animals whose faces redden with embarrassment. Should we see that as an affliction, or as a blessing? ‘Blushing is the most peculiar and most human of all expressions,” Charles Darwin once wrote, and he wasn’t wrong. Though certain species of bird pinken up as a means of communication, and uakari monkeys have red faces when in good health, we seem to be the only animal that flushes as a sign of embarrassment. “It’s a very truthful signal,” says Prof Sophie Scott, the direc...

By Joel Snape