Humiliation

Humiliation is defined as 'the embarrassment and shame you feel when someone makes you appear stupid, or when you make a mistake in public.'

There is a great podcast called ‘How to keep cool in a crisis’ on Slate.

Bus driver Dan (Dan Christensen), who has driven a Portland bus for 15 years, mentioned a story where a guy was on the bus and was just yelling at Dan. He couldn’t work out why the guy was so angry, and as the guy got off the bus, Dan asked him, "Hey, what happened?”

He wanted to check if anyone in the back of the bus had done something to him.

The man started yelling directly at Dan as he walked down the street. He then walks right into a phone pole & everyone on the bus roars with laughter.

The guy then runs back to the bus and punches Dan and keeps punching him.

Why does the man do this? He is humiliated.

Humiliation is an intense emotion that plays a very important role in the escalation of violence- both between individuals and groups of people (for example, in international conflict), and the bigger the audience, the greater the potential for humiliation.

It is such an intense emotion because it triggers the same circuits in the brain as physical pain.

That means that being humiliated can feel like being punched.

This is why it is so important to treat others with respect, especially when there is the potential for conflict or disagreement.

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