Media

Dr Laura Müller-Pinzler among others on the “cringiest trend of the campaign season” (The Guardian). Article by Bejmanin Powers on www.popsci.com

Waarom heb ik zoveel last van plaatsvervangende schaamte? Plaatsvervangende schaamte een nutteloze emotie? Je hebt er meer aan dan je denkt.

Annalina Mayer, PhD student of the Social Neuroscience Lab, speaks at Deutschlandfunk Nova about why shaming will not stop us from showing particular behaviors. Check out the new podcast (only in German)

Alkoholabhängigkeit –  Was macht das Immunsystem? Trotz der großen gesellschaftlichen Bedeutung sind die Ursachen für die Entstehung der Alkoholabhängigkeit bisher nur unzureichend verstanden. Ein neuer Forschungsansatz untersucht die Rolle des Immunsystems. Entzündungen im Körper können, wie bei der Depression gezeigt, auch bei Alkoholabhängigkeit bestehen und bei einer Untergruppe von Patienten eine neue Therapiemöglichkeit darstellen. Um …

Alcohol addiction – what is the role of the immune system? Read More »

Why do we feel vicarious embarrassment? Frieder Paulus explores embarrassment on behalf of others at the University of Lübeck, Germany. He says that the main reason for feeling embarrassed is the violation of rules and conventions. Although the feeling of embarrassment itself is not particularly pleasant, it is generally something positive and constructive for the …

Deutschlandfunk Nova – Frieder Paulus explains “Fremdscham” Read More »

In a joint publication with Michigan State University, Goethe-University Frankfurt and Lübeck University, published at Frontiers in Communication – Political Communication, we show that there has been a 45-percent increase in people tweeting about embarrassment since Donald Trump took office. An analysis of Twitter traffic between June 2015 and June 2017 revealed how platform’s users …

Affective politics: Trump sparks ’embarrassment’ spikes on Twitter Read More »

For anybody who is interested in research on vicarious embarrassment we do recommend to watch this very illustrative and informative Youtube-video. It nicely summarizes the neural mechanisms underlying empathy and how these relate to vicarious emotions such as “Fremdscham”

Frieder Paulus explains how social closeness impacts the experience of vicarious embarrassment and why every kind of embarrassment demands an audience. See latest interview at www.sueddeutsche.de

New York magazine’s “Science of Us” editor explains the compelling psychology of awkwardness, and why learning to accept your cringeworthy moments can be a social advantage. “Have you ever said goodbye to someone, only to discover that you’re both walking in the same direction? Or had your next thought fly out of your brain in the …

Cringeworthy: A Theory of Awkwardness by Melissa Dahl Read More »