10.5061/dryad.tmpg4f4vw
https://zenodo.org/records/4311327
oai:zenodo.org:4311327
Julle-Danière, Eglantine
Eglantine
Julle-Danière
0000-0002-6052-1073
University of Portsmouth
Whitehouse, Jamie
Jamie
Whitehouse
University of Portsmouth
Vrij, Aldert
Aldert
Vrij
University of Portsmouth
Gustafsson, Erik
Erik
Gustafsson
University of Portsmouth
Waller, Bridget M
Bridget M
Waller
0000-0001-6303-7458
Nottingham Trent University
The social function of the feeling and expression of guilt
Zenodo
2020
2020-12-08
https://zenodo.org/communities/dryad
Creative Commons Zero v1.0 Universal
Humans are uniquely cooperative and form crucial short- and long-term social bonds between individuals that ultimately shape human societies. The need for such intense cooperation may have provided a particularly powerful selection pressure on the emotional and communicative behaviours regulating cooperative processes, such as guilt. Guilt is a social, other-oriented moral emotion that promotes relationship repair and pro-sociality. For example, people can be more lenient towards wrongdoers who display guilt than towards those who do not. Here, we examined the social consequences of guilt in a novel experimental setting with pairs of friends differing in relationship quality. Pairs of participants took part in a cooperative game with a mutual goal. We then induced guilt in one of the participants and informed the other participant of their partner's wrongdoing. We examined the outcome using a dictator game to see how they split a joint reward. We found that guilty people were motivated to repair wrongdoing regardless of friendship. Observing guilt in others led to a punishment effect and a victim of wrongdoing punished close friends who appeared guilty more so than acquaintances. We suggest, therefore, that guilt has a stronger function between close friends as the costs of relationship breakdown are greater. Relationship context, therefore, is crucial to the functional relevance of moral emotions.
Funding provided by: Leverhulme TrustCrossref Funder Registry ID: http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100000275Award Number: RPG-2016-206
Funding provided by: European Research CouncilCrossref Funder Registry ID: http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100000781Award Number: 864694 FACEDIFF