Mentor/s
Dr. Kathryn Kroeper
Participation Type
Poster
Abstract
Confrontation reduces prejudice by eliciting negative self-directed emotions, like guilt, which promotes self-regulation, and shame, which shifts focus to the self, decreasing the likelihood of constructive actions. Despite their distinct effects, past research has often conflated guilt and shame. The present study aims to develop and validate a psychological measure that clearly distinguishes guilt as a behavior-focused emotion and shame as a person-focused emotion. We asked 194 undergraduate students to recall a time where they were confronted for saying something biased, offensive, or insensitive toward a group of people. They then rated the extent to which they experienced guilt or shame in that situation using newly developed measures designed to distinguish between these emotions. Participants reported their behavioral responses to the confrontation, including whether they engaged (or planned to engage) in self-correction. A confirmatory factor analysis examining all six emotions as separate factors adequately fit the data. As predicted, guilt was strongly associated with self-correction (r = .749, p < .001) and negatively associated with defensiveness (r = -.179, p = .013), consistent with its role as a behavior-focused emotion that motivates constructive action. In contrast, shame was most strongly linked to withdrawal (r = .528, p < .001), with weaker ties to self-correction and no detectable association with defensiveness, reflecting its inward focus on personal inadequacy. These measures can help researchers understand why some confrontations reduce prejudice while others fail or backfire, and may also be useful in other contexts where distinguishing between guilt and shame is important.
College and Major available
Psychology BS
Academic Level
Undergraduate student
Location
Digital Commons & West Campus West Building University Commons
Start Day/Time
4-25-2025 12:00 PM
End Day/Time
4-25-2025 2:00 PM
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 4.0 License
Prize Categories
Most Scholarly Impact or Potential, Most Transformative for Social Justice, Most Creative
Exploring Guilt and Shame: Emotional Responses to Bias Through Reflection on Past Experiences
Digital Commons & West Campus West Building University Commons
Confrontation reduces prejudice by eliciting negative self-directed emotions, like guilt, which promotes self-regulation, and shame, which shifts focus to the self, decreasing the likelihood of constructive actions. Despite their distinct effects, past research has often conflated guilt and shame. The present study aims to develop and validate a psychological measure that clearly distinguishes guilt as a behavior-focused emotion and shame as a person-focused emotion. We asked 194 undergraduate students to recall a time where they were confronted for saying something biased, offensive, or insensitive toward a group of people. They then rated the extent to which they experienced guilt or shame in that situation using newly developed measures designed to distinguish between these emotions. Participants reported their behavioral responses to the confrontation, including whether they engaged (or planned to engage) in self-correction. A confirmatory factor analysis examining all six emotions as separate factors adequately fit the data. As predicted, guilt was strongly associated with self-correction (r = .749, p < .001) and negatively associated with defensiveness (r = -.179, p = .013), consistent with its role as a behavior-focused emotion that motivates constructive action. In contrast, shame was most strongly linked to withdrawal (r = .528, p < .001), with weaker ties to self-correction and no detectable association with defensiveness, reflecting its inward focus on personal inadequacy. These measures can help researchers understand why some confrontations reduce prejudice while others fail or backfire, and may also be useful in other contexts where distinguishing between guilt and shame is important.
Students' Information
Katherine Dempsey, Psychology Major, Honors student, Class of 2025
Amanda Hamel, Psychology Major, Class of 2025
Talia Torrens, Psychology Major, Honors student, Class of 2027
Isabelle Berube, Psychology Major, Class of 2025