The blush factor in sensitive online purchases

Well online purchasing should have put paid to such embarrassment, after all you only communicating with an algorithm not talking to a person behind a counter who might judge you.

However despite published research and common knowledge that embarrassment is something we only experience when we are around other people, new research found people were also embarrassed when buying sensitive products privately and online.

A paper which appears in the latest issue of the Journal of Consumer Psychology said study data had important implications for online retailers who have established online environments where they believe consumers feel more comfortable making such purchases.

"There is a misconception that buying products online insulates consumers from being embarrassed," said Indiana University assistant professor of marketing Kelly Herd who co-authored the paper "Wetting the Bed at Twenty-One: embarrassment as a Private Emotion." "While the product may arrive at the door discretely, the act of purchasing is what triggers the embarrassment. You still feel embarrassed because you're judging yourself. It's not about you even thinking about others judging you."

The researchers did a random online survey of 177 people who were asked to describe their own publicly and private embarrassing experiences.

A follow up survey of 124 people presented them with a potentially embarrassing scenario involving purchasing an over-the-counter medication for incontinence. Herd and her partners found that the intensity of embarrassment felt did not lessen when the scenario involved a private, online purchase. In fact it often was worse.

The paper's results suggest that online sellers of sensitive health care products need to make consumers more comfortable when buying them.

"Embarrassment may prevent consumers from purchasing necessary medication, practising safe sex or voicing their feedback on products," said Herd.