Ethics cases are widely used in engineering ethics education, offering ethical dilemma scenarios to analyse and discuss. Recent research highlights the importance of both cognitive and emotional dimensions involved in analysing ethical dilemmas. However, traditional approaches to analysing dilemmas focus mainly on cognitive dimensions. Thus, in this study, we aimed to identify the features that contribute to the activation of schema associated with two specific emotions, embarrassment and anger, in ethics cases. Participants (N = 103) rated the intensity of emotions they thought the case protagonists would feel and then explained their ratings in text. Using the Reflexive Thematic Analysis method, we found that both emotions were sometimes linked to ethical issues at the heart of cases but were also linked to issues of powerlessness, and public exposure regarding difficult decisions. Since these emotions can influence how people analyse cases, a better understanding of the features associated with them is important for those writing and using ethics cases.