Kp. Leith et Rf. Baumeister, EMPATHY, SHAME, GUILT, AND NARRATIVES OF INTERPERSONAL CONFLICTS - GUILT-PRONE PEOPLE ARE BETTER AT PERSPECTIVE-TAKING, Journal of personality, 66(1), 1998, pp. 1-37
Both guilt and empathic perspective taking have been linked to prosoci
al, relationship-enhancing effects. Study 1 found that shame was linke
d to personal distress, whereas guilt was linked to perspective taking
. In Studies 2 and 3, subjects were asked to describe a recent experie
nce of interpersonal conflict, once from their own perspective, and on
ce from the perspective of the other person. Guilt-prone people and gu
ilt-dominated stories were linked to better perspective taking (measur
ed by changes between the two versions of the story) than others. Sham
e had no effect. Guilt improved relationship outcomes but shame harmed
them. Path analysis suggested that trait guilt-proneness leads to per
spective taking, which leads to actual guilt feelings, which produces
beneficial relationship outcomes. Guilt feelings may mediate the relat
ionship-enhancing effects of empathy.