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The Blush: Literary and Psychological Perspectives
Author(s) -
Crozier W. Ray
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
journal for the theory of social behaviour
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.615
H-Index - 51
eISSN - 1468-5914
pISSN - 0021-8308
DOI - 10.1111/jtsb.12105
Subject(s) - phenomenon , psychology , embarrassment , social psychology , ambiguity , consciousness , function (biology) , reputation , social phenomenon , dimension (graph theory) , order (exchange) , sociology , epistemology , social science , philosophy , mathematics , finance , neuroscience , evolutionary biology , pure mathematics , economics , biology , linguistics
Abstract Literary analysis of the blush in Austen's novels identifies three themes, namely the potential ambiguity of a blush, its association with modesty, and its erotic and gendered nature, issues that scarcely figure in current psychological explanations of the phenomenon. I examine these themes and compare them with current psychological accounts which assign a central place to embarrassment and, more specifically, emphasise either unwanted social attention, exposure of the self, or the blush's signalling function. Analysis of Austen's work suggests that greater attention should be paid to self‐consciousness as it relates to threats to reputation, to the erotic dimension of the blush, and to potential gender differences. It should encourage researchers to be aware of limitations of psychological accounts and to expand their range of sources of information in order to enhance understanding of this elusive phenomenon.