When your co-worker stood up during a meeting with his fly down, you actually did feel his pain.
Scientists have found that pain receptors in our brains ignite when we see others go through embarrassing moments.
While old Hollywood movies were filled with slapstick tumbles, and modern TV is overflowing with reality stars making fools of themselves, most people see it as more than entertainment. It actually makes our bodies uncomfortable.
In data published online in the journal PLoS ONE, researchers from Germany and the U.K. gauged viewers reactions to a number of every day scenarios lived out by others -- from watching someone flub a speech to being seen with the fly down on their pants.
Using brain scans, the researchers saw areas usually devoted to pain light up as subjects empathized with someone else's social misstep.
Subjects felt the strike of reflected mortification more if the person doing something silly actually realized they suddenly looked foolish, but there was still a reaction in the brain during scenarios where the focus of attention was oblivious to their awkward moment.
"People vicariously experience embarrassment when observing others' public pratfalls or etiquette violations," the authors wrote in their report, which was compiled by a number of university labs, including from Philipps University Marburg in Germany and Queen's University in Belfast.
"We demonstrated "¦ that vicarious embarrassment was experienced regardless of whether the observed protagonist acted accidentally or intentionally and was aware or unaware that (he or she) was in an embarrassing situation."