This study explored the association of shame and guilt with PTSD among women who had experienced intimate partner violence (IPV). Sixty-three women were assessed by a research clinic serving the mental health needs of women IPV survivors. Results indicated that shame, guilt-related distress, and guilt-related cognitions showed significant associations with PTSD but global guilt did not. When sh...

Adherence to social norms is underwritten not only by the cognitively mediated pursuit of self-interest, but also by emotions. Shame, guilt, pride, empathy, regret and other visceral reactions play a central role in sustaining cooperative relations, including successful transactions in the absence of complete contracting. We consider a public goods game where agents maximize a utility function ...

Psychoanalysts since Sigmund Freud have tried to discuss the role of religion in modern societies. Freud himself saw religion as an illusion which had struck neurotics, while Slavoj Žižek viewed it as some sort of “perversion” which functioned in the cycle of law-transgression. In this essay, I dig into these theories to uncover traces of Lutheran interpretations of Paul’s words on the Jewish l...

Guilt is thought to maintain social harmony by motivating reparation. This study compared two methodologies commonly used to identify the neural correlates of guilt. The first, imagined guilt, requires participants to read hypothetical scenarios and then imagine themselves as the protagonist. The second, recollected guilt, requires participants to reflect on times they personally experienced gu...

As the first in their families to attend college, first-generation college students (FGCs) experience a discrepancy between the opportunities available to them and those available to their non-college-educated family members that elicits family achievement guilt. The present studies examined family achievement guilt among an ethnically diverse sample of FGCs and continuing-generation college st...

This study examined consumers' emotional responses, their attitudes toward advertisements and brands, attributions about the companies promoting the brands, and purchase intention for ads varying on level of guilt appeal. Sixty working mothers, a prime target of guilt appeals, participated in the study. Results indicated that moderate guilt appeals elicited more felt guilt in the working mother...

In this study, individuals’ levels of personal responsibility and actual behavior towards protecting the environment were studied to examine the effects both these variables would have on the individuals’ environmental guilt or “eco-guilt.” The research measured 95 participants’ personal eco-guilt through surveys. Half received a manipulation that was used to make them feel responsible for thei...

This study explores the relationship between existential guilt, inferences of manipulative intent, attitude towards the brand, and donation behaviour intentions. A scale was also developed to measure existential guilt. Although it is exploratory in nature, it fills the gap in the literature that guilt is not a unified construct and should be measured separately. This research found that consume...

BACKGROUND Empirical studies of the relationships between shame, guilt, and drinking are sparse and sometimes appear contradictory. However, a more coherent picture emerges when researchers differentiate between measures of experienced of guilt and shame (i.e., questionnaires that ask how often people experience thoughts, feelings, and sensations associated with the emotion) versus proneness to...