A closer look
When a person experiences extreme embarrassment or shame and their face flushes red, the mucosal lining of their stomach also blushes and turns noticeably darker. Scientists first observed this strange sympathetic response in the 1800s when treating a patient with a permanent abdominal fistula, noticing that his gastric lining changed color in tandem with his emotional states. Your digestive tract is apparently so emotionally fragile that it insists on physically reacting to that cringeworthy thing you said at a networking event three years ago. It is bad enough that your cheeks broadcast your social ineptitude to everyone in the room, but your internal organs are quietly dying of embarrassment in the dark right along with you. Truly, human anatomy is a masterclass in unnecessary overreactions, proving that humiliation is literally a gut-wrenching experience from the inside out
