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Fremdschämen: Why we are ashamed of others

Why are we ashamed of ourselves?
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  1. Really embarrassing!
  2. As if we ourselves were in the uncomfortable situation
  3. Fremdschämen: ego-care and compassion

Really embarrassing!

A slipped cleavage, a tactless remark or silly celebrities on TV - when others are embarrassing, the stranger's shame starts with us . Why?

In the jungle camp 2014, the hell was going on: A resident stirred up his neighbor, spits her food in the face. And the spectators? Feel disgust and be ashamed of others.

Because the man on TV was Winfried Glatzeder, 68, who was regarded as a respected actor until his participation in the disgusting docu. Does he need that? Some people wonder.

But why are we even embarrassed when others are embarrassing?

As if we ourselves were in the uncomfortable situation

A clear answer has not yet been found by science. However, an increase in embarrassing TV programs has contributed to the fact that there has been a word for this feeling for a few years: foreign shame.

One thing is certain: If we observe someone in an embarrassing situation, we are ashamed because certain nerve cells in our brain simulate the action. That is, we put ourselves in the other person, feeling similar to them.

Fremdschämen: ego-care and compassion

That's why we feel ashamed when someone misjudges. On the one hand, this serves as our self-affirmation: for with shame we delimit ourselves from the other person, elevate our own moral or behavioral ideas to a standard. On the other hand, strangers evoke empathy. And is actually even a very nice trait especially pronounced by the way, by the way, in women !

Boris Becker, 46: From Tennishelden to Depp: After Twitter slips and red-carpet quarrels with his wife Lily, he put the whole thing on with a performance in the Pocher show on the crown with a fly swatter-cap, we can not take it seriously.

Miley Cyrus, 21: The ex-child star caused a lot of surprise with his masturbation show.

Micaela Schäfer, 30: Your desperate urge to get out of your clothes and make it big is just awful.

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