• Question: Why does your face go red when you are embarrassed?

    Asked by anon-202065 to Sophia, Sarah, Meirin, George, Emily, Andy on 12 Mar 2019.
    • Photo: Sophia Pells

      Sophia Pells answered on 12 Mar 2019:

      When you’re embarrassed, the blood vessels in your face do something called vasodilation which means they get wider to allow more blood to flow through. The red face is caused by all this extra blood flowing behind your skin. It’s the exact same thing that happens after you’ve done exercise and get red but no one really knows why it happens when we are embarrassed too. Weirdly, it seems to only be humans that blush and not other animals.

    • Photo: Sarah O'Sullivan

      Sarah O'Sullivan answered on 14 Mar 2019:

      To make you more embarrassed!

Comments