Shame in Two Cultures: Implications for Evolutionary Approaches
TLDR
The available data are consistent with the proposition that shame evolved from a rank-related emotion and, while motivating prestige competition, cooperation, and conformity, nevertheless continues to play this role in contemporary humans.Abstract:
Cross-cultural comparisons can a) illuminate the manner in which cultures differentially highlight, ignore, and group various facets of emotional experience, and b) shed light on our evolved species-typical emotional architecture. In many societies, concern with shame is one of the principal factors regulating social behavior. Three studies conducted in Bengkulu (Indonesia) and California explored the nature and experience of shame in two disparate cultures. Study 1, perceived term use frequency, indicated that shame is more prominent in Bengkulu, a collectivistic culture, than in California, an individualistic culture. Study 2, comparing naturally occurring shame events (Bengkulu) with reports thereof (California), revealed that shame is associated with guilt-like accounts in California but not in Bengkulu, and subordinance events in Bengkulu but not in California; published reports suggest that the latter pattern is prominent worldwide. Study 3 mapped the semantic domain of shame using a synonym task; again, guilt was prominent in California, subordinance in Bengkulu. Because shame is overshadowed by guilt in individualistic cultures, and because these cultures downplay aversive emotions associated with subordinance, a fuller understanding of shame is best arrived at through the study of collectivistic cultures such as Bengkulu. After reviewing evolutionary theories on the origins and functions of shame, I evaluate these perspectives in light of facets of this emotion evident in Bengkulu and elsewhere. The available data are consistent with the proposition that shame evolved from a rank-related emotion and, while motivating prestige competition, cooperation, and conformity, nevertheless continues to play this role in contemporary humans.read more
Citations
More filters
Book
The WEIRDest People in the World
TL;DR: A review of the comparative database from across the behavioral sciences suggests both that there is substantial variability in experimental results across populations and that WEIRD subjects are particularly unusual compared with the rest of the species – frequent outliers.
Journal ArticleDOI
WEIRD languages have misled us, too [Comment on Henrich et al.]
Asifa Majid,Stephen C. Levinson +1 more
Shame and Guilt
TL;DR: The author explores the Biblical tale of Adam and Eve, Milton's Paradise Lost, and the phenomenon of shame and guilt, its connection with religion, and its place and significance in human society.
Journal ArticleDOI
Shame, guilt, and depressive symptoms: a meta-analytic review.
TL;DR: This study quantitatively summarized the magnitude of associations of shame and guilt with depressive symptoms and suggested that shame should figure more prominently in understandings of the emotional underpinnings of depressive symptoms.
Journal ArticleDOI
Moral psychology is relationship regulation: Moral motives for unity, hierarchy, equality, and proportionality
Tage Shakti Rai,Alan Page Fiske +1 more
TL;DR: Relationship regulation theory predicts that any action, including violence, unequal treatment, and "impure" acts, may be perceived as morally correct depending on the moral motive employed and how the relevant social relationship is construed.
References
More filters
Book
Cultures and Organizations: Software of the Mind
TL;DR: In this article, the differences in the way strategists and their followers think are discussed, and practical solutions for those in business to help solve conflict between different groups are proposed, with a focus on how to find common problems which demand cooperation for the solution of these problems.
Book
Emotion and Adaptation
TL;DR: In this article, the authors discuss the person-environment relationship: motivation and coping Cognition and emotion Issues of causality, goal incongruent (negative) emotions Goal congruent (positive) and problematic emotions.
Journal ArticleDOI
On aims and methods of Ethology
TL;DR: In this article, Lorenz den Begrunder moderner Ethologie erblicken, was meiner Ansicht nach das Wesentliche in Fragestellung und Methode der Ethologies ist and weshalb wir in Konrad Lorenz the Begruender moderner ethologie.
Journal ArticleDOI
Fears, phobias and preparedness: Toward an evolved module of fear and fear learning
Arne Öhman,Susan Mineka +1 more
TL;DR: The fear module is assumed to mediate an emotional level of fear learning that is relatively independent and dissociable from cognitive learning of stimulus relationships.
Book
Kamus besar bahasa Indonesia
TL;DR: In this paper, a sublema petinju et al. showed that kamus ini bagi upaya pencerdasan bangsa akan lebih dapat dirasakan.