The current project aims to examine the variability of guilt-related behaviors, perceptions, and tendencies of Asian American and European American students through participants’ response to potentially guilt-inducing vignettes. We hypothesized that Asian Americans will express more guilt toward parents in response to guilt-inducing vignettes involving academic or career failures as compared to European Americans. Participant data was collected through an online survey, and was consistent with our predictions. Additionally, we found that European Americans are more likely to feel guilt in response to vignettes involving health and moral failures. After performing a mediation analysis, we found that negative feelings associated with guilt in response to a career failure is mediated by a sense of responsibility to parents.
When making social decisions, we utilize neural value comparisons which lead us to experience social interactions that may be rewarding or “punishing” (Ruff & Fehr, 2014). However, recent studies have found that more than just a consideration of neural value may drive social decision-making: specifically, social relationships and interpersonal expectations. Expectations and moral judgments of actions within a specified relationship are shaped by the we have for that relationship; we vary in our expectations of others depending on our relationship with them (Earp et al., 2020).Although substantial research has been done to study the underlying mechanisms for how we make decisions, there is little known about the emotions that these decisions can elicit. This research project aims to examine the correlation between interpersonal expectations and feelings of guilt and guilt-related behavioral tendencies, as well as examine the cognitive mechanisms underlying social decision-making, moral judgment, and emotion. We propose that interpersonal expectations among varying social relationships influence feelings of guilt and guilt-related behavioral tendencies. We hypothesize that individuals who fail to fulfill a higher level of expectation will report feeling more guilt, as opposed to those facing weaker expectations.
Ample research supports the influential nature of religion on human behavior, though not much is known about how idiosyncratic variables may impact religion’s efficacy. The present study, informed by the supernatural monitoring hypothesis, tested the influence of levels of individualism and a God concept prime on prosocial behavior. A sample of 78 participants completed an online questionnaire that evaluated their level of individualism, randomly assigned to either the God prime condition or neutral condition, and then asked to play the dictator game to measure their prosocial behavior. Overall, we found no significant effect of individualism or the God concept prime on prosocial behavior. Although multiple findings suggest that humans may behave in socially desirable ways when they feel like they are being surveilled, our results suggest psychological research is limited in its abilities to understand exactly how we can manipulate the underlying motivations of cooperation and prosocial behavior. By highlighting these issues, we can discover how psychological processes may promote humans to be kinder and cooperative.
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