Shame and embarrassment revisited

The authors report three studies guided by Sabini and Silver's view of the shame-embarrassment distinction. In each study, participants reported the e motions they would feel in scenarios. In Studies 1 and 2 they found that pe ople reported experiencing shame ifa real flaw was exposed but reported emb arrassment if an audience member would (reasonably) think such a flaw was e xposed. In Study 3, the authors found that the unreasonable perceptions of a flaw by an audience led to reported anger The data are consistent with th e view that people refer to themselves as experiencing shame when they beli eve that a real flaw of their self has been revealed, they refer to themsel ves as experiencing embarrassment when they believe that others have reason to think a flaw has been revealed, and they refer to themselves as angry w hen they believe others unreasonably see them as flawed. The data are incon sistent with the view that embarrassment is tied to violations of conventio ns, whereas shame is tied to moral failings.