Research suggests that laughing off small mistakes is more socially advantageous than feeling embarrassed about them.

A study by psychologists at Cornell University has shown that when people make minor mistakes that don't cause any real harm to others, such as tripping, mistaking someone for someone else, or getting someone's name wrong, they are more likely to be received favorably by those around them if they laugh it off rather than act embarrassed.

Transcending embarrassment: On the reputational benefits of laughing at yourself - PubMed
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/41746706/

When you stumble, laughter beats embarrassment
https://phys.org/news/2026-02-stumble-laughter.html

Previous research had assumed that showing embarrassment after failure had a social benefit, as it made it appear as if the person understood social norms and was reflecting on their actions. In contrast, this study focuses on the fact that in reality, people often exhibit another reaction: laughing at themselves.

In an online experiment involving a total of 3,204 people, the research team asked participants to read about awkward failure scenarios, such as 'bumping into a glass door at a party' or 'waving to someone else at a theater.' They then showed how the person reacted to these situations, either by providing written descriptions such as 'looked embarrassed' or 'laughed at themselves,' or by showing images of embarrassed or laughing faces.

The results showed that people who laughed at themselves for minor mistakes tended to be perceived as 'warmer, more competent, and more genuine' than those who appeared embarrassed.

According to the research team, acting embarrassed was often interpreted as 'overdoing it.' Participants tended to perceive people who acted embarrassed as feeling more embarrassed than the situation warranted, while they tended to interpret laughter as indicating that 'the person who made the mistake understands that it wasn't a big deal.'

The research team explains, 'Both embarrassment and laughing at oneself serve to calm the situation, but embarrassment is often seen as excessive self-consciousness, which hinders the improvement of one's character evaluation, while laughing at oneself is often seen as a reaction that is appropriate to the situation.'

However, this result is conditional on the failure being harmless. The study also examined scenarios such as falling and breaking one's own arm, or accidentally involving someone else and breaking their arm, but in cases where serious harm was caused to the person or others, the person laughing at them was considered to be behaving inappropriately.

The research team argued that 'the greater the harm to others, the weaker the benefits of laughing at oneself become, and in some cases, it can even be more detrimental than showing embarrassment.'

As a future challenge, the research team wants to investigate how cultural differences regarding embarrassment and humor, gender norms, and differences in settings such as the workplace influence this effect.