Feel like a bozo? Prof says: Don't brush it off, do blush

DURHAM -- PFFFFT!

Congratulations. You just sat on a whoopie cushion, making you -- drumroll, please -- the butt of an April Fool's Day joke.

Go ahead. Blush. It's better to get all red-faced than to shrug it off with coolness and insouciance.

So says Mark Leary, Duke professor of psychology and neuroscience billed by the university as an "expert on embarrassment and blushing."

"It's OK to let people know you were taken," says Leary, who a decade ago studied the way people react in embarrassing situations by having them sing "Feelings" in front of others. "By appearing embarrassed and blushing and all that silly stuff, it makes you seem more human, and it makes clear you're concerned with the reactions of your audience."

On the other hand, Leary says, it you're so smooth you can play off, say, the plastic-wrap-on-the-toilet gag without breaking a sweat, people may not think so much of you.

He has found that people who embarrass themselves will actually go out of their way to emphasize that embarrassment, lest others think them unfeeling.

"Showing that you're embarrassed is sort of an image-repair strategy," he said. "It really is a very important social function."

Especially today.