Abstract
Research on the effects of guilt on interpersonal relationships has shown that guilt frequently motivates prosocial behavior in dyadic social situations. When multiple persons are involved, however, this emotion can be disadvantageous for other people in the social environment. Two experiments were carried out to examine the effect of guilt and empathy on prosocial behavior in a context in which more than two people are involved. Experiment 1 investigates whether, in three-person situations, guilt motivates prosocial behavior with beneficial effects for the victim of one’s actions but disadvantageous effects for the third individual. Participants were faced with a social dilemma in which they could choose to take action that would benefit themselves, the victim, or the other individual. The findings show that guilt produces disadvantageous side effects for the third individual person present without negatively affecting the transgressor’s interest. In Experiment 2, participants were faced with a social dilemma in which they could act to benefit themselves, the victim, or a third person for whom they were induced to feel empathic concern. Again, the results show that guilt generates advantages for the victim but, in this case, at the expense of the transgressor and not at the expense of the third person, for whom they were induced to feel empathic concern. Therefore, guilt and empathy seem to limit the transgressor’s interest. The theoretical implications are discussed.
Highlights
Accepted: 25 February 2022For centuries, economists and psychologists have argued that moral emotions stimulate prosocial behavior
In Experiment 1, we replicated the findings of de Hooge et al [7] showing that guilt motivates prosocial behavior toward the victim with negative consequences for other social partners
Guilt theories certainly suggest that the function of guilt is to protect and improve social relationships in general, which would imply that this emotion should have positive consequences for everyone in the agent’s environment [4,6,12,29]
Summary
Economists and psychologists have argued that moral emotions stimulate prosocial behavior. The literature shows that guilt, as a moral emotion, does motivate prosocial behavior in dyadic social dilemma situations [3–6]. De Hooge et al [7] claimed that in social situations involving multiple individuals the moral and prosocial nature of guilt is questionable. In these circumstances, guilt can produce positive consequences for the victim of one’s actions but disadvantageous effects for others in the social environment. We examine whether empathic emotions [8,9] towards the third person in the social environment might attenuate the highlighted effect (i.e., the negative impact on the third person from the transgressor’s prosocial behavior towards the victim). Turn our attention to empathic emotion, as a process that is activated when we stop focusing attention on our thoughts and emotions [10,11]
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