NEW YORK, July 29 U.S. psychologists say guilt serves a dual function -- it feels bad and stops behavior, but it also promotes pro-social changes in behavior.
The study, published in Psychological Science, demonstrated emotion can play a dynamic motivational function for regulating behavior -- in this experiment, in the context of reducing racial prejudice.
David M. Amodio of New York University and colleagues sought to test their theory that guilt is initially associated with the tendency to stop anti-social behavior, but transforms into pro-social behavior when an opportunity for reparation presents itself.
To test the theory, the researchers showed participants pictures then relayed randomized scores to the participants, telling them whether they responded positively or negatively to the white, black and Asian faces.
After the subjects received feedback they had responded negatively toward pictures of black faces, subjects gave reports of significantly increased guilt, anxiety and sadness.
The participants then completed another study in which they read a variety of magazine headlines interspersed with three titles pertaining to prejudice reduction. The participants that had been told they responded negatively toward black faces, revealed a large left-sided shift in frontal cortical activity while reading the prejudice-reduction titles.
Feelings of guilt predicted whether or not the participants would be interested in prejudice-reducing behavior, said Amodio.
Copyright 2007 by UPI
