Humans are one of the only known species that blush.

Many of us consider blushing embarrassing, but Charles Darwin called it “the most peculiar and the most human of all expressions.” There’s a good reason for that: We’re one of the only species known to do it, aside from birds (although researchers are still teasing out whether our feathered friends blush for the same reasons we do). Whether the result of committing a social faux pas or just being paid a compliment, the involuntary reaction occurs in humans when the blood vessels in our face dilate and more blood flows to our cheeks. Part of our fight-or-flight response, it also entails an adrenaline rush and an increased heart rate. The reaction may be mostly unique to humans in part because our facial skin is relatively well exposed, and because embarrassment requires knowing (or imagining) what others are thinking about you — pretty complex cognitive stuff, actually.

Your stomach lining reddens when you blush.

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It's a fact

It isn’t just your cheeks that turn red when you blush. The same thing happens to your stomach lining, a response caused by the sympathetic nervous system increasing blood flow throughout the body.

For all that, we still don’t know exactly what purpose blushing serves. Some theorize that it helps keep us honest (it can’t be faked, after all), while one study suggests that blushing after a social transgression “serves to signal the actor’s genuine regret or remorse over a wrongdoing” — in other words, it acts as physical evidence that we know we’ve made a mistake. This, in turn, makes others more likely to not only forgive our slight but also view us in a more favorable light. This is doubly true when it results from being given a compliment — who doesn’t find that reaction endearing? Maybe it’s not so embarrassing after all.

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