ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses existing work on awkwardness and related concepts, particularly embarrassment. Following previous studies, the authors locate awkwardness outside awkward people. They distinguish four key elements of awkwardness. First, awkward feelings are the outcome of social interactions going wrong. Second, the emotion of awkwardness has three characteristics: (1) feeling uncomfortable in a social interaction as a result of experiencing (2) uncertainty about what to expect, which often leads to (3) feeling self-conscious about oneself. These feelings are the outcomes of social interaction going wrong in the perception of at least one actor involved. Third, such feelings are given meaning by labeling them in a certain way (e.g. as awkward). Fourth, awkward interactions often follow a certain temporal sequence and manifest themselves in specific ways in time. Moreover, awkwardness spreads through space and is impacted by its spatial context. The final part of this chapter discusses related concepts – mainly embarrassment – to argue what sets awkwardness conceptually apart. The authors theorize embarrassment as the (relatively) short-lived, negative emotion that occurs after an individual social mishap, whereas they perceive awkwardness as the emotion that arises when (future or past) social interactions are (will be or were) going wrong.
