• Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

Psychology Spot

All About Psychology

  • About
  • Psychology Topics
  • Advertising
Home » The emotion that hurts us the most

The emotion that hurts us the most

Share on Facebook Share on X (Twitter) Share on LinkedIn Share on Email Share on Reddit Share on WhatsApp Share on Telegram
emotionally hurt

Telling someone that he was wrong makes him aware of his mistake, but not happy. In fact, we have all felt the slight sting when someone has shown us our mistakes. And the pain may be more intense if we are facing a crowd, it is likely we feel embarrassed and humiliated, emotionally hurt. 

However, it’s funny noticing how the closest friends and even the family sometimes become brutal and insensitive criticizing our mistakes, especially when they end up with the well-known phrase: “I told you so!”. Obviously, we too can exhibit a complete lack of tact indicating to others their mistakes.

And the point is that, for many years we thought that “spare the rod, spoil the child”, that if someone feels ashamed, he will correct his behavior immediately and won’t repeat that mistake again. It’s true that the trauma that causes humiliation leaves deep scars and teaches us a lesson, but there’re other ways to point out the mistakes and correct them.

Humiliation: Lasts more than joy and is more intense than anger

We feel humbled when we perceive that our value decreases before others. This is a very negative emotional state and unfortunately is also very common, but has been poorly studied compared to states like anger, anxiety or fear.

SEE ALSO  What you read is more important than you think

In fact, until now we’ve been thinking that humiliation was simply an unpleasant state whose impact went no further. However, now a study conducted at the University of Amsterdam hit the nail on the head revealing that consequences of humiliation are much more serious than we thought.

These neuroscientists decided to peer into the brains of people as they experienced different emotional states. The aim was to compare their reactions to states such as anger, joy, shame and humiliation

To generate these feelings were used short stories that referred to these emotions and were asked them to imagine themselves in the shoes of the protagonist. For example, in the case of humiliation, they were asked to imagine they had a date, and that the person right after seeing them turned around and walked away immediately.

SEE ALSO  5 hidden brain mistakes you experience every day

The responses that occurred in their brain were analyzed considering intensity and duration. When comparing the different conditions, the researchers could see that the responses triggered by humiliation were more intense than those generated by joy and more negative than anger.

These neuroscientists believe that humiliation is activating brain areas linked with pain, so it could be more intense than anger and, at the same time, represents a heavy cognitive task that we must process, so it is much more durable than joy.

Moral: Those who believe that humiliating others and giving them a lesson in front of all are teaching them something, what really are they doing is producing them pain and creating a wound that can last throughout their lives. Remember always that there are nicer ways to help.

Source:

Otten, M., & Jonas, KJ (2014) Humiliation as an intense emotional experience: Evidence from the electro-encephalogram. Social Neuroscience; 9 (1): 23-35.

Share on Facebook Share on X (Twitter) Share on LinkedIn Share on Email Share on Reddit Share on WhatsApp Share on Telegram

Jennifer Delgado

Psychologist Jennifer Delgado

I am a psychologist and I spent several years writing articles for scientific journals specialized in Health and Psychology. I want to help you create great experiences. Learn more about me.

Psychological Factors in Chronic Weight Struggles 

10/07/2025 By Jennifer Delgado

Talking about emotions is not enough: when catharsis becomes a trap

10/07/2025 By Jennifer Delgado

Transition breaks, the habit that will prevent you from collapsing due to stress

09/07/2025 By Jennifer Delgado

Primary Sidebar

Recent Posts

  • Psychological Factors in Chronic Weight Struggles 
  • Talking about emotions is not enough: when catharsis becomes a trap
  • Transition breaks, the habit that will prevent you from collapsing due to stress
  • You don’t always have to be good to act well
  • If you have this kind of curiosity, your brain will age better

DON’T MISS THE LATEST POSTS

Footer

Contact

jennifer@intextos.com

About

Blog of Psychology, curiosities, research and articles about personal growth and to understand how our mind works.

Follow Us

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • Twitter

© Copyright 2014-2024 Psychology Spot · All rights reserved · Cookie Policy · Disclaimer and Privacy Policy · Advertising