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Publications

Journal Article Ppublish

PubMed: 41871240 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2526787123

Cross-cultural evidence that shame is a defense against reputational damage.

Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 123(13):e2526787123

Authors: Yiftach Argaman, Daniel Sznycer, Jan Crusius, Florian van Leeuwen, Yohsuke Ohtsubo, Hitomi Ishihara, Jin-Ying Zhuang, Qi-Jun Zhou, Thomas Castelain, Félix Neto, Joana Neto, Assaf Kron

Affiliations

  • Department of Psychology, University of Greifswald, Greifswald 17489, Germany.
  • Department of Psychology, Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, OK 74078.
  • Department of Social Psychology, Tilburg University, Tilburg 5037 AB, The Netherlands.
  • Department of Social Psychology, Graduate School of Humanities and Sociology, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo 113-0033, Japan.
  • School of Psychology and Cognitive Science, East China Normal University, Shanghai 200062, China.
  • Comparative Minds research group, Department of Psychology, University of Girona, Girona 17003, Spain.
  • Department of Psychology, University of Porto, Porto 4200-135, Portugal.
  • Research on Economics, Management, and Information Technologies, Universidade Portucalense, Porto 4200-135, Portugal.
  • Department of Psychology, University of Haifa, Haifa 3103301, Israel.

Abstract

Because shame leads to evasions, aggression, and other behaviors that victims and third parties find undesirable, a prominent theory regards this emotion as maladaptive. By contrast, an alternative, adaptationist theory asks whether shame might benefit the actor. Indications that an individual now offers fewer benefits or imposes greater costs on others, if they reach others' minds, lead the individual to be socially devalued: Others become less inclined to help and more inclined to harm her. Thus, an adaptationist theory views shame as a neurocognitive adaptation designed to minimize the leakage of reputation-damaging information and the cost of being devalued. Here, we report tests of two predictions derived from the adaptationist theory across six countries-the United States, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Japan, and China-and two cultural regions within the United States-Southern states (honor) and Northern states (nonhonor). First, failures that indicate reductions in abilities more highly valued by others will elicit more intense shame. Second, failures will trigger greater shame when they occur in public rather than in private. The data supported both predictions in all six countries and in both US cultural regions. The improbable fit between the severity of the devaluative threat and the intensity of shame suggests that this emotion is an adaptation. Further, the replication of these findings across regions that vary widely along the individualism-collectivism and honor-nonhonor dimensions suggests that shame is part of human nature rather than a cultural construction.

MeSH

Emotions, Shame