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Episode details

Radio 4,07 Mar 2025,15 mins

SeriesSeries 2

7. Why do we blush?

Why Do We Do That?

Available for over a year

Paleoanthropologist Ella Al-Shamahi asks why we blush. Even Darwin was intrigued by blushing. He called it “the most peculiar and most human of all expression” but didn’t think it had a function. Dr Laith Al-Shawaf from the University of Colorado makes students do embarrassing things to understand why we blush and how blushing can make people like you more when you make a mistake.

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