vicarious embarrassment

English

Noun

vicarious embarrassment (countable and uncountable, plural vicarious embarrassments)

1. The uncomfortable sympathetic feeling experienced while watching someone else embarrass themselves.
   • 1996, Rom Harré, W. Gerrod Parrott, editors, The Emotions: Social, Cultural and Biological Dimensions, SAGE, →ISBN, page 124:

     It is noted that vicarious embarrassment does not necessarily indicate the presence of an embarrassed other.

   • 2014 July 17, Oliver Burkeman, “No, I won't watch that cringe-inducing viral video. I'm a better person than you”, in The Guardian‎^[1], →ISSN:

     The same brain regions, the study found, are implicated in vicarious embarrassment – watching President Obama give an awkward hug of his own to departing press secretary Jay Carney, say – as they are when empathizing with the physical pain of others.

Synonyms

• empathic embarrassment
• secondhand embarrassment

Translations

embarrassment felt for someone else

• Catalan: vergonya aliena f
• Czech: pocit trapnosti za druhého, pocit trapnosti
• Dutch: plaatsvervangende schaamte f
• Finnish: myötähäpeä (fi)
• German: Fremdscham (de) f, Fremdschämen (de) n
• Icelandic: kjánahrollur
• Polish: zażenowanie (pl) n (czyimś zachowaniem)
• Portuguese: vergonha alheia (pt) f
• Russian: испанский стыд (ru) m (ispanskij styd)
• Spanish: vergüenza ajena (es) f, alipori (es) m (colloquial)
• Swedish: sekundärskam c