Petty people have a way of revealing themselves.
They take a miniscule mistake or wrongly interpret a misjudgment to mean a slight on their character and punish you by outing you in front of a group of people.
The thing is, their power is diminished if you put your hand up and accept full responsibility.
Also you can take the attempt at social embarrassment as a warning sign to steer clear of those people in the future.
Thomas Duggan 