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The Role of Guilt and Empathy on Prosocial Behavior

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...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Scaffidi Abbate, Costanza, Misuraca, Raffaella, Roccella, Michele, Parisi, Lucia, Vetri, Luigi, Miceli, Silvana
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8945273/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35323383
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/bs12030064
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author Scaffidi Abbate, Costanza
Misuraca, Raffaella
Roccella, Michele
Parisi, Lucia
Vetri, Luigi
Miceli, Silvana
author_facet Scaffidi Abbate, Costanza
Misuraca, Raffaella
Roccella, Michele
Parisi, Lucia
Vetri, Luigi
Miceli, Silvana
author_sort Scaffidi Abbate, Costanza
collection PubMed
description 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.
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spelling pubmed-89452732022-03-25 The Role of Guilt and Empathy on Prosocial Behavior Scaffidi Abbate, Costanza Misuraca, Raffaella Roccella, Michele Parisi, Lucia Vetri, Luigi Miceli, Silvana Behav Sci (Basel) Article 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. MDPI 2022-03-01 /pmc/articles/PMC8945273/ /pubmed/35323383 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/bs12030064 Text en © 2022 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Scaffidi Abbate, Costanza
Misuraca, Raffaella
Roccella, Michele
Parisi, Lucia
Vetri, Luigi
Miceli, Silvana
The Role of Guilt and Empathy on Prosocial Behavior
title The Role of Guilt and Empathy on Prosocial Behavior
title_full The Role of Guilt and Empathy on Prosocial Behavior
title_fullStr The Role of Guilt and Empathy on Prosocial Behavior
title_full_unstemmed The Role of Guilt and Empathy on Prosocial Behavior
title_short The Role of Guilt and Empathy on Prosocial Behavior
title_sort role of guilt and empathy on prosocial behavior
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8945273/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35323383
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/bs12030064
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