33 People Share What Embarrassing Stuff They Witnessed Someone Do Without Them Knowing

A typical person experiences a lot of various emotions. Basically, we as humans are very emotional. In the 1970s, psychologist Paul Eckman identified six basic emotions that are universally experienced: happiness, sadness, disgust, fear, surprise, and anger. You know, just as the emotions’ characters in the 2015 movie Inside Out. 

But the truth is that we experience more emotions than just these\, which is what the sequel of Inside Out points out too. Here, this article by Jonice Webb, Ph.D., says that we have 35 of the most commonly felt emotions. 

This list includes the aforementioned 6, but the other 29 are a good addition, too. For example, passion, which drives people to create and invent, or guilt, which compels one to repair their wrongdoing. We would also suggest adding yet another emotion to this already not-so-short list – shame. After all, it’s an emotion all of us have experienced at some point in our lives. 

Yet, despite being common, shame is a rather difficult emotion to process. In fact, it might be one of the most challenging, as it impacts people’s self-perception by eroding self-worth and damaging the ability to connect with others. 

It can stem from a variety of places. From poor choices and harmful behaviors of your own to others causing it with harsh words or actions. Certain life conditions can also plant seeds of that in one’s mind, even if there is nothing to be ashamed about – a person's mind tends to dramatize.

What’s also interesting about the shame emotion is that it has “a kid” called embarrassment. You might think – isn’t that the same emotion, just a different name? Well, it kind of is, but at the same time, it isn’t. At the base, both leave us feeling similarly – confused, distressed, and uncomfortable to describe it in a basic way. 

Yet, what’s different about them is that embarrassment tends to be fleeting, the feeling that can be brushed off, while shame is the lasting one. For example, of that fleeting feeling, imagine a situation where you do something cringey and realize someone saw it – you would feel embarrassment, wouldn’t you? 

If you don’t really want to imagine that or comb through your memories for instances like that, you can just take a look at today’s list. We filled it with stories of people witnessing someone else doing something embarrassing without thinking they had viewers.

Kind of a mortifying situation to find yourself in, when you really think about it, isn’t it? And yet, we've all probably experienced it – it’s like a humiliation ritual of the human experience. 

Do you want to share your story like that? Our comment section is always open!