Binging on cringe: It's as addictive as 'eating junk food'

I feel it. You probably do, too. Someone posts a crying selfie, proposes at a wedding, or confidently sings off-key at karaoke and we cringe.

We cringe when we see something so awkward, embarrassing, or painfully lacking in self-awareness that it makes us recoil.

But we're attracted to it at the same time because — perhaps — we've experienced similar situations ourselves or we know and care about people who have embarrassed themselves and we felt empathy.

And that's why cringe is also known in psychology as secondhand or vicarious embarrassment. We feel it on behalf of other people as well as their feeling it themselves. And sometimes we just enjoy watching other people suffer in a socially awkward situation.

Cringe has an online community: There are cringe compilations, reaction channels on cringe, comedy and other formats built on people's most cringeworthy moments. And people appear to be hooked.