Shame and theory-of-mind predicts rule-following behavior

Artikel

This paper examines the idea that adherence to social rules is in part driven by moral emotions and the ability to recognize the emotions of others. Moral emotions like shame and guilt produce negative feelings when social rules are transgressed. The ability to recognize and understand the emotions of others is known as affective theory of mind (ToM). ToM is necessary for people to understand how others are affected by the violations of social rules. Using a laboratory experiment, individuals participated in a rule-following task designed to capture the propensity to follow costly social rules and completed psychometric measures of guilt, shame, and ToM. The results show that individuals who feel more shame and have higher ToM are more likely to follow the rules. The results from this experiment suggest that both shame and ToM are important in understanding rule-following.

Object Details

• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Journal: Games ; ISSN: 2073-4336 ; Volume: 11 ; Year: 2020 ; Issue: 3 ; Pages: 1-17 ; Basel: MDPI

Classification and Topics

• Classification: Wirtschaft ; Game Theory and Bargaining Theory: General ; Design of Experiments: General ; Welfare Economics: General ; Micro-Based Behavioral Economics: Role and Effects of Psychological, Emotional, Social, and Cognitive Factors on Decision Making‡
• Subject: emotions ; rule-following ; social norms ; theory-of-mind

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Geistige Schöpfung
• (who): Ridinger, Garret
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (who): MDPI
• (where): Basel
• (when): 2020

Further information

• DOI: doi:10.3390/g11030036
• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/257454
• Last update: 10.03.2025, 11:44 AM CET