On the interplay between pain observation, guilt and shame proneness and honesty

Panagiotis Mitkidis; Hanna Thaler; Sonja Perkovic; Shahar Ayal; Simon Tobias Schulz Karg; Dan Ariely

doi:10.1016/j.actpsy.2023.103920

On the interplay between pain observation, guilt and shame proneness and honesty

Panagiotis Mitkidis^*, Hanna Thaler, Sonja Perkovic, Shahar Ayal, Simon Tobias Schulz Karg, Dan Ariely

^*Corresponding author for this work

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Abstract

Seeing others in pain can stimulate powerful socio-emotional responses. Does it also make us more moral? In two laboratory experiments, we examined the interplay between pain observation, self-reported guilt and shame, subjective perceptions of pain intensity, and subsequent honest behavior. Watching a confederate perform a moderately painful (vs. non-painful) task did not affect honest behavior in a subsequent die-roll task. Independent of pain observation, there was a positive relationship between self-reported guilt proneness and shame proneness and honesty. More specifically, individuals who are more prone to feeling guilt -and to a lesser extent shame- behaved more honestly. Furthermore, we found weak support for the hypothesis that greater perceived pain (rather than objective pain) is associated with less cheating. We call for further research in the interconnections between perceived pain, guilt, shame, and moral behavior.

Original language	English
Article number	103920
Journal	Acta Psychologica
Volume	236
Number of pages	8
ISSN	0001-6918
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actpsy.2023.103920
Publication status	Published - Jun 2023

Keywords

Expectations
Guilt proneness
Morality
Pain
Performers-observers gap effect
Humans
Self Report
Shame
Guilt
Emotions
Morals

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10.1016/j.actpsy.2023.103920Licence: CC BY-NC-ND

Mitkidis_2023_On_the_interplay_between_pain_observationFinal published version, 2.4 MBLicence: CC BY-NC-ND

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title = "On the interplay between pain observation, guilt and shame proneness and honesty",

abstract = "Seeing others in pain can stimulate powerful socio-emotional responses. Does it also make us more moral? In two laboratory experiments, we examined the interplay between pain observation, self-reported guilt and shame, subjective perceptions of pain intensity, and subsequent honest behavior. Watching a confederate perform a moderately painful (vs. non-painful) task did not affect honest behavior in a subsequent die-roll task. Independent of pain observation, there was a positive relationship between self-reported guilt proneness and shame proneness and honesty. More specifically, individuals who are more prone to feeling guilt -and to a lesser extent shame- behaved more honestly. Furthermore, we found weak support for the hypothesis that greater perceived pain (rather than objective pain) is associated with less cheating. We call for further research in the interconnections between perceived pain, guilt, shame, and moral behavior.",

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AU - Perkovic, Sonja

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AU - Karg, Simon Tobias Schulz

AU - Ariely, Dan

PY - 2023/6

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N2 - Seeing others in pain can stimulate powerful socio-emotional responses. Does it also make us more moral? In two laboratory experiments, we examined the interplay between pain observation, self-reported guilt and shame, subjective perceptions of pain intensity, and subsequent honest behavior. Watching a confederate perform a moderately painful (vs. non-painful) task did not affect honest behavior in a subsequent die-roll task. Independent of pain observation, there was a positive relationship between self-reported guilt proneness and shame proneness and honesty. More specifically, individuals who are more prone to feeling guilt -and to a lesser extent shame- behaved more honestly. Furthermore, we found weak support for the hypothesis that greater perceived pain (rather than objective pain) is associated with less cheating. We call for further research in the interconnections between perceived pain, guilt, shame, and moral behavior.

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KW - Guilt proneness

KW - Morality

KW - Pain

KW - Performers-observers gap effect

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KW - Emotions

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On the interplay between pain observation, guilt and shame proneness and honesty

Abstract

Keywords

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