I used to have lots of stories like this - started in childhood, until my mid twenties. My mum sent me to buy a battery when I was eight, giving me the old one. I couldn't bring myself to show the old one, so I asked for the kind I thought it was. I walked away from the shop, checked it - it was the wrong one. But I couldn't face going back into the shop; I decided to handle my mum's disappointment that I'd failed this task instead.
I was eventually cured of this when I took on a job of training people, but at first, I found it very difficult to point out when they were doing something wrong, especially if they were older than me. But I had to learn, or I would have failed the exams. I still find it difficult sometimes, but I do it. If I meet someone whom I suspect is too timid to say what's on their mind, I often say "you don't seem happy with that", because in their position, my younger self would not have spoken up.
I do feel very anxious about asking for help if it displays my ignorance; I blame a primary teacher who named and shamed children for asking "silly questions". When I first went to the cinema, I didn't know about the adverts before a film starts (my parents never took me to the cinema), and eventually I plucked up the courage to ask a staff member if I was at the right screen; this was a monumental task though, especially as he seemed astonished.
This thread is fascinating, and I have a lot of sympathy, but I'm not laughing at all. I'm often very stony-faced when characters on TV or radio put themselves out like this. I'm still angry about Tom in The Archers telling the police that he was driving and ran someone over, when it was actually Helen who did it when she was drunk, but he was too weak to stop her, and then to dob her in. (And that was several years ago!)