Humiliation, triggered by sensed insult, is hypothesized as a traumatic stimulus and the driving force of a goal-directed survival response that includes predictable emotional appraisals, and motivational or behavioral responses. Because these responses appear automatic and obligatory, they are most likely innately planted as a survival mechanism. Sensitive to developmental experience, these psychobiological responses can be intensified or modulated by social learning.
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Dianne Trumbull (2008) studied this question.