Empathy, Guilt Proneness, and Gender: Relative Contributions to Prosocial Behaviour
Guilt is a moral emotion that is often looked upon as a negative trait. However, studies show that some individuals are more predisposed to think, feel and act in a more ethical manner because of a lower threshold to experience guilt. Some theories of helping behaviour emphasize the evolutionary mec...
| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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PsychOpen GOLD/ Leibniz Institute for Psychology
2016-05-01
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| Series: | Europe's Journal of Psychology |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://ejop.psychopen.eu/article/view/1097 |
| _version_ | 1797972924841328640 |
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| author | Linda Torstveit Stefan Sütterlin Ricardo Gregorio Lugo |
| author_facet | Linda Torstveit Stefan Sütterlin Ricardo Gregorio Lugo |
| author_sort | Linda Torstveit |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Guilt is a moral emotion that is often looked upon as a negative trait. However, studies show that some individuals are more predisposed to think, feel and act in a more ethical manner because of a lower threshold to experience guilt. Some theories of helping behaviour emphasize the evolutionary mechanisms, while other theories stress the importance of social variables. This study investigated whether guilt proneness as a dispositional trait can be associated with prosocial behaviour. Five hundred sixty-nine participants reported in an online survey their own levels of guilt proneness, frequency of prosocial behaviour, and related cognitions such as empathy. This study is among the first to demonstrate how guilt proneness combined with empathy can explain additional variance in prosocial behaviour. The findings also indicate gender differences in the precursors of prosocial behaviour, suggesting women are more influenced by the effects of guilt proneness on prosocial behaviour than men. |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-11T03:56:08Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-4ca5835e6f16442185128b357433ed2d |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1841-0413 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-11T03:56:08Z |
| publishDate | 2016-05-01 |
| publisher | PsychOpen GOLD/ Leibniz Institute for Psychology |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Europe's Journal of Psychology |
| spelling | doaj.art-4ca5835e6f16442185128b357433ed2d2023-01-02T00:28:34ZengPsychOpen GOLD/ Leibniz Institute for PsychologyEurope's Journal of Psychology1841-04132016-05-0112226027010.5964/ejop.v12i2.1097ejop.v12i2.1097Empathy, Guilt Proneness, and Gender: Relative Contributions to Prosocial BehaviourLinda Torstveit0Stefan Sütterlin1Ricardo Gregorio Lugo2Department of Psychology, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, DenmarkSection of Psychology, Lillehammer University College, Lillehammer, NorwaySection of Psychology, Lillehammer University College, Lillehammer, NorwayGuilt is a moral emotion that is often looked upon as a negative trait. However, studies show that some individuals are more predisposed to think, feel and act in a more ethical manner because of a lower threshold to experience guilt. Some theories of helping behaviour emphasize the evolutionary mechanisms, while other theories stress the importance of social variables. This study investigated whether guilt proneness as a dispositional trait can be associated with prosocial behaviour. Five hundred sixty-nine participants reported in an online survey their own levels of guilt proneness, frequency of prosocial behaviour, and related cognitions such as empathy. This study is among the first to demonstrate how guilt proneness combined with empathy can explain additional variance in prosocial behaviour. The findings also indicate gender differences in the precursors of prosocial behaviour, suggesting women are more influenced by the effects of guilt proneness on prosocial behaviour than men.http://ejop.psychopen.eu/article/view/1097guilt pronenessguiltempathypersonalityprosocial behaviourhelping behaviourgender |
| spellingShingle | Linda Torstveit Stefan Sütterlin Ricardo Gregorio Lugo Empathy, Guilt Proneness, and Gender: Relative Contributions to Prosocial Behaviour Europe's Journal of Psychology guilt proneness guilt empathy personality prosocial behaviour helping behaviour gender |
| title | Empathy, Guilt Proneness, and Gender: Relative Contributions to Prosocial Behaviour |
| title_full | Empathy, Guilt Proneness, and Gender: Relative Contributions to Prosocial Behaviour |
| title_fullStr | Empathy, Guilt Proneness, and Gender: Relative Contributions to Prosocial Behaviour |
| title_full_unstemmed | Empathy, Guilt Proneness, and Gender: Relative Contributions to Prosocial Behaviour |
| title_short | Empathy, Guilt Proneness, and Gender: Relative Contributions to Prosocial Behaviour |
| title_sort | empathy guilt proneness and gender relative contributions to prosocial behaviour |
| topic | guilt proneness guilt empathy personality prosocial behaviour helping behaviour gender |
| url | http://ejop.psychopen.eu/article/view/1097 |
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