MSGID: 1:317/3 649a6601   
   PID: hpt/lnx 1.9.0-cur 2019-01-08   
   TID: hpt/lnx 1.9.0-cur 2019-01-08   
    People in power who are guilt-prone are less likely to be corrupt    
      
     Date:   
         June 26, 2023   
     Source:   
         University of California - Santa Barbara   
     Summary:   
         Guilt. It's a horrible feeling that causes us to question our worth   
         as human beings. But while it's something that induces sleepless   
         nights and stress-related physical symptoms in individuals,   
         for society at large, the tendency toward guilt might have some   
         benefits.   
      
      
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   FULL STORY   
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   Guilt. It's a horrible feeling that causes us to question our worth as   
   human beings. But while it's something that induces sleepless nights and   
   stress- related physical symptoms in individuals, for society at large,   
   the tendency toward guilt might have some benefits.   
      
   "People who are prone to feeling guilt in their everyday lives are less   
   likely to take bribes," said UC Santa Barbara psychology professor Hongbo   
   Yu, who specializes in how social emotions give rise to behaviors. He is a   
   senior author of a paper that appears in the journal Social Psychological   
   and Personality Science.   
      
   In a study he conducted in collaboration with partners at East China   
   Normal University and Zhejiang Normal University, Yu looked at guilt   
   not as an episodic state -- such as how we feel after specific instances   
   in which we hurt someone -- but rather as a personality trait, in which   
   people tend to worry about the potential harm their actions cause.   
      
   "So I could be a person for whom it is really easy to feel guilt in   
   my everyday life," he explained, "while others might be less likely to   
   feel guilt, or have a higher bar for feeling that emotion."  We all can   
   probably intuit that anticipatory guilt might make us think twice before   
   undertaking an action with potentially bad consequences for others. But   
   what has been less clear is how this crucial morality-related personality   
   trait affects decision makers in situations involving temptation and   
   incentives, balanced against potential harm to others.   
      
   "The question was whether the trait of guilt is associated with a lower   
   probability of engaging in corrupt behavior," Yu said.   
      
   In their study, the researchers concentrated on bribery, an act in which   
   a person that typically has some level of power and influence is tempted   
   to act illegally or unethically in exchange for favors or gifts from   
   someone who wishes to use that influence unfairly for their gain.   
      
   In one of the researchers' online experiments, participants were asked   
   to fill out a questionnaire to record both demographic and personality   
   information, and also their fairness concerns. They also participated   
   in one of two scenarios.   
      
   The first one put them into the role of an arbitrator with the power   
   to assign students grades. They were each paired with a "co-player,"   
   who, unbeknown to them, was fictitious. The co-players (in this case   
   the fictitious students who had been graded) would attempt to bribe   
   the participants to change their grades in exchange for a portion of   
   the reward the co-players would receive for passing the test above a   
   certain threshold.   
      
   The second scenario gave each participant 100 tokens, ostensibly to donate   
   to a children's charity, such as UNICEF. Then co-players attempted to   
   bribe the participants to give them the money, in exchange for keeping   
   a certain portion for themselves.   
      
   "So the structure of the two scenarios is similar, but the critical   
   difference is that in the charitable donation scenario, the victim is   
   obvious," Yu said.   
      
   "The first scenario is more of just a violation of moral principle."   
   As would be expected, participants who scored high in guilt-proneness   
   (from the questionnaire) were less likely to accept a bribe in either   
   of the two scenarios. The effect was more pronounced in the charitable   
   donation scenario.   
      
   "You know someone's going to get hurt," Yu said. "In the paper we   
   argue that when the victim is more salient, the association between the   
   guilt trait and corrupt behavior becomes stronger." Concern for others'   
   suffering, they said, might play a significant role in how guilt-proneness   
   influences bribe-taking behaviors.   
      
   This study joins a growing body of work that associates guilt-proneness   
   with fewer unethical decisions, such as cheating for personal gain   
   and counterproductive work behaviors. But it's important to note that   
   this study is correlational, Yu said. "We can't make a causal claim   
   that if we make people more guilt-prone, we will necessarily see less   
   corruption. That needs more research."  Indeed, the researchers say,   
   guilt proneness is not the only trait that might predict corrupt behaviors   
   (or lack of them), and it's worth studying how this trait, along with   
   other personality traits, might "serve as a reliable anti- corruption   
   predictor in personnel selection," such as when choosing people for   
   leadership positions or for high-stakes jobs.   
      
   "We can't claim causality, but we can leverage the association between   
   the guilt trait and the lower likelihood of corruption to make us more   
   confident about their integrity," Yu said. "Maybe that's something we   
   can apply to the real world."   
       * RELATED_TOPICS   
             o Mind_&_Brain   
                   # Behavior # Borderline_Personality_Disorder #   
                   Consumer_Behavior # Anger_Management   
             o Science_&_Society   
                   # Surveillance # STEM_Education # Popular_Culture #   
                   Education_and_Employment   
       * RELATED_TERMS   
             o Procrastination o Society o Emotion o PMS o Sports o   
             Post-traumatic_stress_disorder o Altruism o Inferiority_complex   
      
   ==========================================================================   
   Story Source: Materials provided by   
   University_of_California_-_Santa_Barbara. Original written by Sonia   
   Fernandez. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.   
      
      
   ==========================================================================   
   Journal Reference:   
      1. Yang Hu, Shiwei Qiu, Gaotong Wang, Kui Liu, Weijian Li, Hongbo Yu,   
         Xiaolin Zhou. Are Guilt-Prone Power-Holders Less Corrupt? Evidence   
         From Two Online Experiments. Social Psychological and Personality   
         Science, 2023; 194855062311685 DOI: 10.1177/19485506231168515   
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   Link to news story:   
   https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2023/06/230626163232.htm   
      
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