“The blush of maidenly modesty” has often been the theme of the
poets--and the novelists! It is an indication of timidity or
bashfulness. Girls and young women are particularly subject to
blushing; and a pretty speech, a compliment, a personal allusion will
bring a blush to the cheeks as readily as will shame or anger. Intense
emotions of this character will usually bring about a blush.
Needless to say, a blush is, superficially, a sudden rush of blood to
the face and neck, filling the smaller blood vessels with arterial
blood--for if it were venous blood we should blush blue! This
instantaneous control of the circulation by a sudden emotion is in
itself of remarkable interest. It must be brought about by sudden
nervous impulses, checking and accelerating the blood-supply in the
face. Hack Tuke asserts that the blush of shame begins in the neck
and ears, that of anger begins with the eyes, and that of love in the
forehead.
Darwin attempted to account for blushing by supposing that a person
who thinks that others are looking at him directs his attention to
his own face; hence results a flow of blood towards that part. Such
explanations are now rejected. The experiments of Mosso and others, on
the circulation of the blood, seem to point to the view taken by the
psychologist Wundt--who contended that the normal checks to the blood
supply were temporarily suspended, as compensation for the accelerated
pulsations of the heart, produced by emotion.
On this view, the emotions of shame, anger, etc., cause you to blush
because the nerves which control the blood supply in your face
are temporarily “inhibited”; more blood to these parts reacts in
consequence.