Embarrassment and Social Organization Erving Goffman The American Joumal of Sociology, Vol. 62, No. 3 (Nov., 1956), 264-271. Stable URL: http flinksstor.orgsici?sici=0002-9602% 281956114 2062%3A3%3C264%3ABASOWSE2.0.CO®IB2L The Amencan Journal of Sociology is currently published by The University of Chicago Press, Your use of the ISTOR archive indicates your acceptance of ISTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use, available at flip: feworwjtor org/aboutterms.htmal. ISTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use provides, in par, that unless you fave obtained pcior permission, you may not dowaload an cnt isus of @ journal or multiple copies of articles, and you may use content inthe ISTOR archive only for your personal, non-commercial uss. Please contact the publisher cegarding any further use of this work. Publisher contact information may be obtained at bhupsferww.jstoc.org/joumals‘ucpresshtel. 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These projections ont gcc at tatdom dr for paycho Dae coeds yrange pina so cr rasnens has i socal fsetan Se of confict between these prince, ‘An individual may recognize extreme embarrassment in others and even in himself by the objective signs of emotional dlis- turbance: blushing, fumbling, stuttering, an unusually Jow- oF high-pitched voice, ‘quavering speech or breaking of the voice, sweating, blanching, blinking, tremor of the hand, hesitating of vacllating movement, absent-mindecness, end malspropisms. AS Mack Boldwin remarked about shyness, there may be “s lowering of tie eves, bowing of the head, putting of hands hehind the ack, nervous fingering of the clothing or ‘owisting of the fingers together, and stam- rmering, with some incoherence of idea as expressed in speech.” ‘There are also symp. toms ofa subjective kind: eonstriction of the diaphragm, a feeting of wobbliness, con- sciousness of strained and unnatural ges- tures, a dazed sensation, dryness of the mouth, and tenseness of the muscles, In cases of mild discomfture these visible and invisible flasterings ocour but it ess per ceptible form, Ta the popular view it is only natural to be at ease during interaction, embarrass rment being a regrettable deviation from the normal state. The individual, in fact, might say be felt “natural” or “unnatural” in the situation, meaning that he felt comfortable in the interaction or emberrassed in it. He sho frequently becomes embarrassed in the presence of athers is regarded as sulfering Frama fash unjostifed sense of inferiority and in need of therapy ‘Janes Mark Baldwin, Seca and Bthical Inter preations ta Mexlet Deon London, 1902), a doer a ial earns out cele ison preva inthe oc To utilize the fustering syndrome in analyzing embarrassment, the twa kinds of sircumstance in which it'occurs must frst be distinguished. First, the individual may hecome flustered while engaged in a task of no particular value to him in itself, except that his long-range interests require hien to perform it with. safety, competence, or dispatch, and he fears he is inadequate co the task. Discomfort will be felt in the situa- toa but in & gense not for it; in fact, often the individual will nat be able to cope with St just because he is 90 anxiously taken up with the eventualities lying beyond it. Significantly, the individual may become “rattled” although no others are present. This paper will not be concemed with these occasions of instrumental chagrin but rather with the kind that occurs in cleat-cut relation to the real or imagined presence of others. Whatever else, embarrassment has tn do with the figure the individeal cuts be- 1A sophisticated version is the paychoaralytcal view that messiness im socal internction isa esl Of impale expectacians of attention Bated. on tunteszlved expectatios regarding pasenta support. Presumably an abject of therapy & t bring the fel vidunl to see bis symptoms in thie tree prycho- cdynarsfe light, on the seamptio that thevefter perhape fe wil not ncad chem (eae Pavl Sehilder, Nethe Social Neurosis” Payekondnabzal Resin, XV [193, 1-19; Gerhact Pies and Milton Singer, ‘Sime ad Gui: & Peschasealitzal and 6 Culsrad ‘Siady (Spengtel, IL! Chesles C ‘Thomas, 1953 ‘esp. p. 26; Leo Rangell, “The Paychoboay of Poise" Thternaisuat Tours of Peycheanalsic, XXX {98H}, 313-32; Sandor Perencal “Embarraced anda," in Farber Contributions fe the Paar ac Tecnlque of Payctoenalysis (Landon: Hogarth ress 1950, pp. 315-16) 264EMBARRASSMENT AND SOCIAL ORGANIZATION fore others felt to be thereat the tise." The cxucil concern iste impression one makes ‘on athers in the present—whatever the long-range or unconscious basis of this con- cem may be. This ductuating configuration ‘of those present is & most important refer- fence grap. LYOCARUITARY OP ELERARRASSWENT A social encounter is an occasion of f2ce- to-face interaction, beginning when iedic viduals recognize that they have moved into one another's immediate presence and end- ing by an appreciated withdrawal from mutual participation. Encounters. differ markedly from one another in purpose, social function, kind and number of per” sonnel, setting, ete., and, while only con- versational encounters will be considered here, cbviously there are those in which no word is spoken. And yet, in our Anglo- American society at least, these seers ta be ‘no social encounter which cannot became embarrassing to one or more of its partici pants, giving rise to what is sometimes called an incident or false note. By listening for this dissonance, the sociologist can gen eralize about the ways in which interaction can go avny and, by implication, the condi- tions necessary for interaction ia be right. [At the same time he is given good evidence that all encounters are members of a single natural class, amenable to a single frame- work of analysis. By whom. is the emberrassing incident caused? To whom is it embarrassing? For ‘whom is this embarrassment felt? It is not always an individeal for whose plight participants feel embarrassment; it may be for pairs of participants who ate together having dificulties and even for an encounter as a whole, Further, if the individual for ‘whom embarrassment is felt happens to be pecceived as & responsible representative of 2-The themes develope in this paper are exten sions af the ty the rites (Pace Work” Payhious, XVUL (985), 213-31; “Alienation from Iniracion:" amen Ratton (ortheon ita); and The Prasaaton of Sef on Bierging Life Universy of Edinburgh, Socal Sdences Research Cezwe, Monograph No.2 (Edinburgh, 1986), 268 some faction or subgroup (as is very often the case in three-or-more-person interac tion}, then the members of this faction are likely to feel embarrassed and to feel it for themselves. But, while 2 gage or fous: pos can mean that 2 single individual is at one and the same time the cause of an incident, the one who feels embarrassed by it, and the fone for whom he feels emharrassment, thisis not, perhaps, the typical ease, for in these matters ego boundaries seem especially ‘weak. When an individual finds himsel¥ in a situation which ought to make him blush, others present usually will blush with and for him, though he may not have sufficient sense of shame or appreciation of the cir- ‘cumstances to blush on his own account. ‘The words “embarrassment,” “discom- fiture,” and “uneasiness” are used here ina continwum of meanings. Some occasions of embarrassment seem to have an abrupt orgasmic character; a sudden introduction of the disturbing event is followed by an immediate peak in the experience of em- bbarrassment and then by a slow retu to the preceding ease, all phases being en- compassed in the same encounter. A bad moment thus mats aa otherwise euphoric situation, ‘AC the other extreme we find that some ‘occasions of embarrassment are sustained at the same level ebroughout che encounter, heginning when the inceraction begins and lasting until the encounter is terminated. ‘The participants speak of an uncorafortable or uneesy situation, not of an embarrassing ncident. In such case, of course, the whole ‘encounter becomes for ane or more of the parties an incident that causes embarrass ment. Abrupt embarrassment may aften be intense, while sustained uneasiness is more commonly mild, invalving barely apparent fiusterings. An encounter which seems likely to occasion abrupt embarrassment may, because of this, cast a shadow of sustained uneasiness upon the participants, transform- ing the entire encounter into an incident itself. Tn forming a picture of the embarrassed individual, one relies on imagery from