The internet is full of folks who want to act like smarty-pants. Online, anyone can be a know-it-all with a simple visit to Google and even their opinions. Granted, there are times when others get humbled by someone better informed and versed in one topic or another.
There's a group that collects such interactions, titled r/Don'tYouKnowWhoIAm. Medical, science, and other experts lurk on the internet too, waiting for their chance to put jerks in their place. So, here we present to you the newest collection of cases when folks didn't quite know they were talking with a person they were talking about. Get ready to feel some mild second-hand embarrassment!
More info: Reddit
#1 Facebook User Encounters A Genetics Expert
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#2 Simple Answer To A Simple Question
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#3 A Comedian Gets Called Out For Stealing His Own Joke, But It Ends Nicely
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Embarrassment is a funny thing; some people would be mortified if they were on the receiving end of these interactions. Others, however, probably wouldn't even flinch even if they were as wrong as the people on this list.
Experts say that, in general, we humans are a pretty easy species to embarrass. True, it's an emotion most of us feel on an almost daily basis. But is there any point to embarrassment? We'd probably not feel it at all if we could, but there is a purpose that being embarrassed serves in our social interactions.
#4 American Academy Of Pediatrics, Where Are You Getting Your Information?!
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#5 Martin Scorsese Is Not A Real Cinephile
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#6 Regarding Oppenheimer
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We're social animals; we've lived in groups for as long as we've been around as a species. Embarrassment is nature's way to correct our course when we transgress in a social situation.
"Group living has been important to us for a long time, and even if you don't intentionally want to violate a social norm, you sometimes do. Embarrassment serves the function of immediately and strongly displaying, ‘Oops, I didn't mean to do that,'" psychologist Christine Harris, PhD explains.
#7 Guy Talking About The Military Is Actually A Vet 🤯
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#8 Rip
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#9 Explain To The Author Of "The Handmaid's Tale" Her Inspiration For Her Own Book
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Surprisingly, being more prone to embarrassment makes people like you more. In 2012, researchers at the University of California, Berkeley found that people who are more embarrassable tend to be more prosocial. What's more, they behaved more generously than those who didn't get embarrassed as easily.
#10 Gail Simone Could Be The Spokesperson Of This Sub
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#11 Musk Challenges Yann Lecun
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#12 Director Chimes In
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It's hard to tell whether a person online gets embarrassed. In real life, a red face and avoiding eye contact are pretty telling signs that a person is feeling embarrassment. Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience at Duke University Mark R. Leary explained to The BBC that blushing is how bodies show we're uncomfortable with unwanted attention.
#13 Same
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#14 Twitter User Tells Known Anthropologist To Study Anthropology
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#15 He Practically Is The Spiderman
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People's trust for easily embarrassed people translates into romantic relationships as well. Researcher Matthew Feinberg, the co-author of the Berkeley study, says that people find embarrassable people more attractive. "If they are looking for a long-term partner, it could show that you are prosocial, cooperative – someone who isn’t going to cheat."
#16 Too Bad
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#17 What A Joker
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#18 Yakuta Not Kimono
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Still, many of us hate feeling embarrassed. So much so, that there's apparently even a case of lethal embarrassment. There's a case, published in the British Medical Journal of 1860, of a housemaid reportedly giving up the ghost after getting caught stealing food. However, today doctors think that it was a sudden rush of adrenaline that made her leave this mortal coil, not embarrassment per se.
#19 Candidate For Jersey City Mayor Just Embarrassed Some Dude 😭
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#20 Does This Go Here?
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#21 It Really Did Work Too Well
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This all sounds great, you might think, but what should you do after experiencing an embarrassing moment? Leadership Rachel Beohm suggests developing a ritual to regain composure after embarrassing yourself in public. It can be an index finger miniature bow, flicking the embarrassment away as a piece of lint, or some other gesture. A physical act, according to her, acknowledges the mistake and makes it easier to move past it.
#22 Commenter Doesn’t Recognize Top Female Chess Talent
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#23 Twitter Never Stops Giving
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#24 To Not Know Who Made Wurm
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You might've heard about the starfish power pose that people recommend for public-speaking jitters. When you're recovering from an embarrassing faux pas, something similar works too.
- Take deep breaths;
- Lift your head up high;
- Straighten your posture;
- And speak in a loud and confident voice.
#25 Telling Stephen King To Get A Job
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#26 Asking The Literal White House If They Read The Fema Fine Print
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#27 But He’s Like 99.9% Sure!
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What if your embarrassing moment happens online? Then your best bet is trying to cope with self-compassion. Marissa Moore, MA, LPC, writes that it's better to confront the situation and admit your faux pas. You might even feel better if you're able to find the humor in it. It doesn't have to be self-deprecating, but it can be an exercise is taking yourself less seriously.
#28 I Love AI ‘Artist’ Tears
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#29 Women Can Only Be Of Models
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#30 I Wrote The Bug😄
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How many of these screenshots were satisfying moments where someone had to eat a nice portion of humble pie, Pandas? Let us know your favorites by upvoting them so they make it to the very top. And if you want to see more people embarrassing themselves by not knowing who they're talking to, check out these posts here and here!
#31 Scolding A TV Anchor Talking About His Own Work
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#32 Do You Think A Founder Of Twitch Wants To Sell His Twitch Account For $500?
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#33 “He’s Stealing Content!” It’s My Content
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#34 Guy Doesn't Realize He's Talking To Andy Weir, The Author Of The Book
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#35 Might Want To Freshen Up On The Bible
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#36 Ask Women Who Writes Superman Comics If She Knows He's Not Real
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#37 Former Battlefield Dev Hasn’t Played Battlefield Apparently
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#38 This Guy Is Creator Of Buckshot Roulette Btw
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#39 He Played The Games So He Would Know Better Of Course
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#40 Twitter Doctor Tries To Argue About A Player's Injury With The Player's Dad
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