We describe the development of a new measure to assess guilt related to concern about harming others. The two versions of the Interpersonal Guilt Questionnaire, a 45-item and 67-item version, include theoretically-based and clinically relevant categories of guilt: survivor guilt, separation/disloyalty guilt, omnipotent responsibility guilt, and self-hate guilt. Preliminary reliability and valid...

Guilt is a central moral emotion due to its inherent link to norm violations, thereby affecting both individuals and society. Furthermore, the nature and specificity of guilt is still debated in psychology and philosophy, particularly with regard to the differential involvement of self-referential representations in guilt relative to shame. Here, using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMR...

Inspired by psychological and evolutionary studies, we present here theoretical models wherein agents have the potential to express guilt with the ambition to study the role of this emotion in the promotion of pro-social behaviour. To achieve this goal, analytical and numerical methods from evolutionary game theory are employed to identify the conditions for which enhanced cooperation emerges w...

abstract introduction: psychological theories and literature have confirmed self-destructiveness patterns in human beings. chronic self-destructiveness has been defined as a tendency to behaviors that increase negative consequences and decrease potential success in the future. the aim of this study was to investigate prediction of chronic self-destructiveness based on the depression symptoms, i...

The present study explored the role of guilt in the door-in-the-face procedure. Drawing on the guilt-based explanation of door-in-the-face effect, it was hypothesized that the greatest amount of compliance would occur when the rejection of the initial request produced high levels of guilt and the acceptance of the small request allowed participants to anticipate a large reduction in guilt. This...

Across four studies, guilt led to forgiveness of others’ transgressions. In Study 1, people prone to experience guilt (but not shame) were also prone to forgive others for past misdeeds. In Study 2, we manipulated harmand inequity-based guilt; both increased forgiveness of others’ transgressions. Further, the effect of guilt on forgiveness was mediated by identification with the transgressor. I...

OBJECTIVES Identifying mechanisms that mediate recovery is imperative to improve outcomes in low back pain (LBP). Qualitative studies suggest that guilt may be such a mechanism, but research on this concept is scarce, and reliable instruments to measure pain-related guilt are not available. METHODS We addressed this gap by developing and testing a Pain-related Guilt Scale (PGS) for people wit...