Today’s Word Search: The curious case of blushing, and it's bloody

Human beings are emotional creatures to boot. Tripping in public or waving at the wrong person ignites a sensation so hot across the cheeks that sometimes it can even get painful. Your face is (figuratively) on fire, and now everyone knows it and sees it. How embarrassing.

Click start to play today’s Word Search, where words 'awkward' and 'red' make an appearance.

We might be the only creatures capable of going red in the face – a boon for the blushing maidens and brides of olden English poets, but a bane for the rest of us wanting to perfect the art of indifference. It’s our bodies’ knee-jerk reaction, a betrayal of sorts, so you simply can’t will it away.

(If you’ve ever accidentally called your teacher ‘mum’ and sat there in skin-prickling shame, then you know a blushing face is as good as a neon head sign.)

A blush is different from a flush, which happens when we run or are at the gym engaged in physical exertion. The former is purely due to emotional triggers. Your discomfort sends a signal to your sympathetic nervous system, the one responsible for our fight-or-flight response, which is why going red is out of your control.

To avert apparent disaster, veins sitting under the cheeks and elsewhere dilate to allow easier blood flow and oxygen. An embarrassing situation is not a dangerous one, yet we blush furiously. Our bodies behave the way they do for a reason; some experts theorise that we owe reddening cheeks to evolution and social norms.

In the scientific journal ‘Emotion’, published by the American Psychological Association, a 2009 journal article tested this theory. Through an experiment, the Dutch psychologists who authored the paper found that we tend to be more forgiving of a mishap when we see the other party blush. It also helps us avoid similar awkward run-ins in future, like an alarm bell.

What makes you turn tomato red? Play today’s Word Search and tell us at games@gulfnews.com.