109. What Is the Purpose of Embarrassment?

No Stupid Questions

Freakonomics Radio + Stitcher

Society & Culture

4.6 • 3.7K Ratings

🗓️ 31 July 2022

⏱️ 35 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

What’s worse: shame, guilt, or humiliation? Does Angela have psychopathic tendencies? And where’s the worst place to sit at a magic show?

Transcript

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0:00.0	Some people would just crawl into a cave and die.
0:05.0	I'm Angela Duckworth.
0:07.0	I'm Stephen Dubner.
0:08.0	And you're listening to no stupid questions.
0:11.0	Today on the show, what's the purpose of embarrassment?
0:15.0	Why don't you want to be a friend? It's like the best seat.
0:17.0	Because you get called on by the magician
0:19.0	and you sit in a flimsy chair and it collapses.
0:22.0	Angela, an email today from one Fred
0:29.0	Wilds Nour.
0:31.0	Okay.
0:32.0	Fred's question has to do with embarrassment.
0:35.0	Hmm.
0:36.0	He writes, what is the purpose of embarrassment?
0:38.0	Could it be another form of empathy,
0:41.0	a way of shaming our hunter-gatherer ancestors
0:44.0	to do their duty in their community?
0:47.0	My adult children are often embarrassed
0:49.0	by my old man type behavior.
0:52.0	I think that's something many of us can identify with.
0:55.0	Either as the embarraser or as the emberasee.
0:59.0	Fred concludes his email by saying,
	...

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