Qué Vergüenza: How an Organization Led National Scholarship Recipients to Become Ashamed of What Had Once Made Them Most Proud

Abstract

Research on shame — an unpleasant self-conscious emotion associated with a negative evaluation of the self — has been the purview of social psychologists and, more recently, of management scholars. While sociologists have made references to shame in their work, we lack a robust analysis of the social character of this emotion. In this project, I develop a processual framework that examines shame as a social phenomenon. I present shame as the internalization of stigma. Using the case of national scholarship recipients enrolled in an elite university, I reveal how different organizational actors deliver ambiguous messages through interactions, flyers, and mass e-mails that lead recipients to feel ashamed of their scholarship status. I draw from participant–observer and interview data to expand on four steps that create a sense of shame in national scholarship recipients. The findings have implications for understanding how well- intentioned organizational initiatives designed to foster the inclusion of disadvantaged people can backfire, negatively affecting individuals, groups, and organizations.