Revisiting Guilt, Shame, and Remorse

Abstract

We explored the observed similarity/dissimilarity among guilt, shame, and remorse (GSR) by conducting an empirical study in three phases-(i) generation of scenarios, (ii) development of illustrations and determination of item (scenario) equivalence, and (iii) rating of GSR induced by the scenarios. Ten young adults wrote their life experiences of guilt, shame and remorse, respectively, yielding a total of 34 scenarios. The scenarios were presented to 138 participants, and they were instructed to reflect upon the emotion (GSR) that best suited the scenarios. Principal component analysis indicated that the same scenario induced guilt as well as shame or remorse depending on the valence. Scenarios with positive factor load assessed guilt, whereas shame and remorse had negative factor load. Following an iterative process, the scenarios were converted into illustrations where each scenario was depicted in a storyboard comprising a set of three illustrations. Generalized procrustes analysis was performed to assess item equivalence between the narrations and the corresponding storyboards. Fourteen participants first rated the narratives and then the storyboards after a gap of 24 h. The findings suggest no significant difference between the illustrated scenarios and the narrative, thus leading to 13 scenarios. Multidimensional scaling suggests that the perception of shame and remorse overlaps and this is distinct from guilt.

Exploring the Thermal Signature of Guilt, Shame, and Remorse

“…The age of the participants ranged between 19 and 24 years (mean, 20.84 years; SD, 1.21). It merits mention that Bhushan et al (2020) conducted their study on male participants only. As the present study borrowed the stimulus and the behavioral part of the study from them, the present study was restricted to male participants only.…”

“…Storyboards of guilt, shame, and remorse scenarios (Bhushan et al, 2020) were shown to the participants. These storyboards comprise of 13 different scenarios, each depicted using three illustrations.…”

“…Fisher and Exline (2010) have referred to self-condemnation as "an offence-specific version of shame" and remorse as "an offence-specific version of guilt." The recent study by Bhushan et al (2020) empirically examined the similarity/dissimilarity among guilt, shame, and remorse. They found that the same scenario induced guilt, shame, or remorse depending on the valence; scenarios with positive factor load resulted into guilt response, whereas those with negative factor load gave rise to shame or remorse.…”

“…As summarized above, the behavioral tools rely on the subjective response of the participants to items or scenarios of a tool. The recent study of Bhushan et al (2020) suggests difficulty in distinguishing shame and guilt on the basis of events necessitating a relook at these three complex emotions adopting some other technique. Incidentally, physiological studies have reported activation of select brain regions for shame and different regions for guilt, along with some overlap (Takahashi et al, 2004).…”

“…Taking note of the fact that cultural salience of the life events are significant in the induction of guilt, shame, or remorse as well as the findings of Bhushan et al (2020) endorsing that the scenarios used in their study with positive factor load resulted into guilt response and only those with negative factor load resulted into shame and remorse response, we selected the scenarios used in their study for the present study, too. It merits mention that such overlap has not only been reported in behavioral studies; rather, the physiological mechanism has also been found to have an overlap.…”