As a situational precursor of embarrassment, this study required college freshmen to answer either innocuous or body image questions asked by an opposite sex confederate, who was gazing directly into their eyes. College freshmen were chosen because they are in the process of assimilating physical changes and new roles apart from the familiar social milieu of home and because they have already evidenced concern about their body images and how they present themselves to the opposite sex. Hypotheses tested were: (1) the behaviors correlated with embarrassment would indicate an adjustive coping response; (2) low self-concept subjects would show more embarrassment than high self-concept subjects; and (3) subjects would show more embarrassment to questions about those body parts with which they were dissatisfied and rated as being of subjective importance. Raters took behavioral measures behind a one-way mirror, while a third rater measured response time. Ratings indicated that response latency, response time, fidgeting, eye contact, redness, and laughter were embarrassment-producing measures and were the most reliable assessors of the emotion. Hypotheses (2) and (3) were not supported. (Author/LAA)