Mediating mechanisms of embarrassment in non-negative situations

Many situations that give rise to embarrassment include some negative actions of the person who feels embarrassed. However, in some cases, there are embarrassing situations that do not include any negative actions of the person. For example, a man said “See you!”, and 5 minutes later had to say “Hello!”. This study aimed to clarify the mediating mechanism of embarrassment in the non-negative embarrassing situations. Data from 474 undergraduate students showed that the experiences of embarrassment in non-negative situations are mainly “basic embarrassment” (ex. hajirai in Japanese) and “awkwardness” (ex. batsu ga warui in Japanese). Moreover, structural equation modeling showed that, in general, the “disruption of interaction” strongly affected the experiences of embarrassment in nonnegative embarrassing situations. These results suggest that the mediating mechanisms of embarrassment depend on the types of situations.