“When your ears burn we say that someone’s talking about you.”

“That may be true actually. Kind of everyone believes in it.”

“I think I learned from my parents like during primary school.”

The informant is from Poland. She is currently attending university in Los Angeles, CA. She has been studying in the United States for the past four years.

The belief that when your ears are burning when someone is talking about you is in some ways an example of homeopathic magic. The fact that its their ears that are burning implies that they want to hear what is being said. Also, when people are embarrassed when they hear something about themselves, they often blush or their ears turn red. In this case, a person talking about whomever makes his or her ears burn from a far distance, like they may have done in person.