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Are shame, guilt, and embarrassment distinct emotions?
Abstract
182 undergraduates described personal embarrassment, shame, and guilt experiences and rated these experiences on structural and phenomenological dimensions. Contrary to popular belief, shame was no more likely than guilt to be experienced in "public" situations; all 3 emotions typically occurred in social contexts, but a significant proportion of shame and guilt events occurred when respondents were alone. Analyses of participants' phenomenological ratings clearly demonstrated that shame, guilt, and embarrassment are not merely different terms for the same affective experience. In particular, embarrassment was a relatively distant neighbor of shame and guilt, and the differences among the 3 could not be explained simply by intensity of affect or by degree of moral transgression. Finally, participants generally were their own harshest critics in each type of event, evaluating themselves more negatively than they believed others did.
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“Shame is closely related to guilt, but can be differentiated from it. In guilt, focus is typically on the person who was transgressed or the relationship that was affected, rather than the self (Tangney et al., 1996). Guilt pushes us out into the world, in an attempt to activate efforts to repair the damage by either reparative action or punishment (Tangney et al., 1996). In contrast, shame”
From Is Shame Hallucinogenic? (2017) · cites this paper as Tangney et al., 1996
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“It is therefore unsurprising that shame is associated with a desire to hide (Tangney et al., 1996).”
From Is Shame Hallucinogenic? (2017) · cites this paper as Tangney et al., 1996
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Metadata
- Authors
- Tangney, J. P., Miller, R. S., Flicker, L., & Barlow, D. H.
- Affiliations
- George Mason University (US)
- ORCID
- Tangney, June Price
- Venue
- Journal of Personality and Social Psychology
- Published
- 1996
- Volume
- 70
- Issue
- 6
- Pages
- 1256-1269
- ISSN
- 0022-3514 (ISSN-L)
- 1939-1315
- OpenAlex
- W4241650702
- Cited by
- 1,556
- References
- 0
- Citations by year
- 2026: 83 · 2025: 82 · 2024: 77 · 2023: 77 · 2022: 87 · 2021: 87 · 2020: 101 · 2019: 74 · 2018: 74 · 2017: 88 · 2016: 60 · 2015: 77 · 2014: 80 · 2013: 71 · 2012: 59
- FWCI
- 13.82
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Journal of Personality and Social Psychology (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Emotions and Moral Behavior
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Forgiveness and Related Behaviors
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Personality Traits and Psychology
- Keywords
- shame, guilt, embarrassment, emotion taxonomy
- MeSH terms
- Adolescent, Adult, Aged, Emotions, Female, Guilt, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, Shame, Social Behavior, Social Environment
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