Moral masochism: On the connection between guilt and self-punishment.

Abstract

Do people sometimes seek to atone for their transgressions by harming themselves physically? The current results suggest that they do. People who wrote about a past guilt-inducing event inflicted more intense electric shocks on themselves than did those who wrote about feeling sad or about a neutral event. Moreover, the stronger the shocks that guilty participants administered to themselves, the more their feelings of guilt were alleviated. We discuss how this method of atonement relates to other methods examined in previous research.

Reappraising the Moral Nature of Emotions in Decision Making: The Case of Shame and Guilt

“…First of all, guilt does not exclusively produce prosocial behavior that is aimed to repair interpersonal transgressions but may also cause self‐punishment. People who experienced feelings of guilt after committing (Nelissen & Zeelenberg, ) or remembering (Inbar, Pizarro, Gilovich, & Ariely, ) interpersonal transgressions as well as after imagining moral violations (Bastian, Jetten, & Fasoli, ), were more likely to punish themselves, for instance through self‐deprivation from rewarding experiences and by inflicting physical pain upon themselves. This prevalence of guilt‐induced self‐punishment that does not benefit the victim seems to conflict with the view of guilt as a moral emotion that elicits prosocial action.…”

“…It more readily corroborates psychopathological views of guilt as a destructive emotion underlying conditions such as depression, obsessive compulsiveness, and psychosis (Fedewa, Burns, & Gomez, ; Harder et al, ; Zahn‐Waxler & Kochanska, ). Moreover, because guilt‐feelings are actually reduced by acts of self‐punishment (Bastian et al, ; Inbar et al, ), it seems that making amends is not required to recover from guilt. On the other hand, self‐punishment responses to guilt predominate in situations that do not allow for reparative actions (Nelissen & Zeelenberg, ) and appear most prevalent in situations where the victim can actually witness the act of self‐punishment by the perpetrator (Nelissen, ).…”

The Role of Religion among Sex Workers in Thailand

“…Another related study by Yoel Inbar, David A Pizarror, Thomas Gilovich, and Dan Ariely adds clarity to the experience of these sex workers in relation to guilt. Based on 41 undergraduate students in an experimental research, the study finds that "feeling guilty about one's own moral transgressions can lead people to engage in physical self-punishment, and that such self-punishment, in turn, serves to reduce feelings of guilt" ( [15], p. 16).…”

Self‐punishment promotes reconciliation with third parties by addressing the symbolic implications of wrongdoing

“…Much of the research on self-punishment has focused on intrapersonal effects of self-punishment, such as a cathartic-type account whereby self-punishment relieves guilt elicited by the wrongdoing (Bastian, Jetten, & Fasoli, 2011;Inbar, Pizarro, Gilovich, & Ariely, 2013). Much of the research on self-punishment has focused on intrapersonal effects of self-punishment, such as a cathartic-type account whereby self-punishment relieves guilt elicited by the wrongdoing (Bastian, Jetten, & Fasoli, 2011;Inbar, Pizarro, Gilovich, & Ariely, 2013).…”