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There are different types of shame. Shame related to a decision situation (endogenous) and shame not related to a decision situation (exogenous). In the endogen
by Eisenstein 3y ago
There are different types of shame. Shame related to a decision situation (endogenous) and shame not related to a decision situation (exogenous). In the endogenous case the shame is said to be a 'pro-social' emotion.
This is backed by studies.
"Using three different emotion inductions and two different dependent measures, we repeatedly found that endogenous shame motivates prosocial behavior. After imagining shame with a scenario, proself participants acted more prosocially toward the audience in a social dilemma game (Experiment 1). This finding was replicated when participants recalled a shame event (Experiment 2). Moreover, when experiencing shame after a failure on performance tasks, proself participants also acted prosocially toward the audience in the lab (Experiment 3). Finally, Experiment 4 showed that this effect could be generalized beyond social dilemmas to helping tendencies in everyday situations. Therefore, it seems safe to conclude that shame can be seen as a moral emotion motivating prosocial behavior." [1]
You can also contrast 'humiliation' shame with 'moral shame', with moral shame being prosocial. This is also backed by studies.
"Our data show that the common conception of shame as a universally maladaptive emotion does not capture fully the diversity of motivations with which it is connected. Shame that arises from a tarnished social image is indeed associated with avoidance, anger, cover-up, and victim blame, and is likely to have negative effects on intergroup relations. However, shame that arises in response to violations of the ingroup’s valued moral essence is strongly associated with a positive pattern of responses and is likely to have positive effects on intergroup relations."[2]
[1] de Hooge, I. E., Breugelmans, S. M., & Zeelenberg, M. (2008). Not so ugly after all: When shame acts as a commitment device.Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 95(4), 933–943.
[2] Allpress, J. A., Brown, R., Giner-Sorolla, R., Deonna, J. A., & Teroni, F. (2014). Two Faces of Group-Based Shame: Moral Shame and Image Shame Differentially Predict Positive and Negative Orientations to Ingroup Wrongdoing. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 40(10), 1270-1284.
- xpe 3y agoWould you care to summarize what "related to a decision situation" means for those of us who don't have access to those articles?
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- dataflow 3y agoJust a guess, but I imagine it's the difference between "I'm ashamed I can't make enough money to save anything" vs. "I'm ashamed I blew all my savings on crypto". One is shame about your situation (which are likely to be out of your own desires and control too), the other is shame about your decision (which you likely had better control over).
- Eisenstein 3y agoThis is correct, according my understanding of the study I sourced.
- redcobra762 3y agoThere’s a reason your citations are nearly a decade old at best; the science has changed. A 2021 meta-analysis showed that, “shame correlates negatively with self-esteem and is large effect size.” [0] So unless the goal of your shame is to actively harm the people involved, then no, shame is not an effective tool at behavior change, given the damage it causes. You may be thinking of “guilt” rather than shame: > In sum, shame and guilt refer to related but distinct negative “self-conscious” emotions. Although both are unpleasant, shame is the more painful self-focused emotion linked to hiding or escaping. Guilt, in contrast, focuses on the behavior and is linked to making amends. [1] [0] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8768475/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8768475/ [1] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3328863/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3328863/
- Eisenstein 3y agoRegarding your sources: One has to do with self-esteem, which has nothing to do with whether it is pro-social or beneficial, just that some types of shame harm self-esteem, which was never contested. The second study is about criminal populations, and I specifically mentioned that shame is about self-policing, and that obviously didn't work if someone is incarcerated for a crime.
- redcobra762 3y agoDid you read them? If your goal is to effect change, hurting people's self esteem is a negative effect that is entirely unnecessary to change. And criminals aren't some ungovernable animals...
- Eisenstein 3y ago> If your goal is to effect change, hurting people's self esteem is a negative effect that is entirely unnecessary to change. Yes, your self esteem will likely be harmed if you do something bad and it gets found out. > And criminals aren't some ungovernable animals... ?