• Question: Why do we blush?

    Asked by beckymonster3 to Kate, Kieren, Nicola, Rowena, Roy on 16 Mar 2014.
    • Photo: Rowena Fletcher-Wood

      Rowena Fletcher-Wood answered on 16 Mar 2014:


      Blushing is the blood all rushing up to your face. We get blood rush to certain parts of our body when we need blood there: have you ever noticed that you don’t feel hungry when you exercise but feel ravenous afterwards? This is because your blood rushes to you muscles to deliver oxygen and leaves your stomach, but rushes back once you stop to tell you to eat and stock up energy! When you’re embarrassed the same thing happens – uour body thinks you nee oxygen so blood goes to your face where you’re trying to control emotion – ending up by not helping at all!

    • Photo: Nicola Rogers

      Nicola Rogers answered on 17 Mar 2014:


      We blush when we are embarrassed because we get a release of adrenaline in the body that puts us into flight or fight mode – and the veins in our face tend to dilate (get bigger) in response to the adrenaline – and hence our face goes red – however WHY this happens, and for what reason we have developed this response to embarrassment is not really well understood.

    • Photo: Kate Nicholson

      Kate Nicholson answered on 18 Mar 2014:


      It is another one of those body responding to emotions in a way we aren’t too sure why! The process of the veins getting full of blood and moving closer to the skin to lose the heat is understood and even some of the biochemical triggers, but exactly why we blush or cry in response to emotion is not so well understood.

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