Person M’s opinion of person N is influenced by the company person N keeps. This contributes to the notion that person N could be embarrassed as a consequence of what the person(s) in their company is/are doing, and hence phrases of the nature “Don’t embarrass me!”

I don’t like this notion that part of how I’m judged depends on how others around me act. I would like to think that I wouldn’t be embarrassed if the people I showed up to a party with were stupid jerks, but I’m not sure I wouldn’t be. The asterisk exception is when the company you’re in makes you a victim of slander, in which case being embarrassed as well as angry etc. is only logical. To believe that a person’s opinion of another could be based solely on their own actions and not on the behavior of those around them is naive. It couldn’t happen, and, despite my reservations, the way opinions are actually molded may be better than the way longed for in the naive belief.