Empathy, guilt proneness, and gender: Relative contributions to prosocial behaviour
Author(s) / Creator(s)
Torstveit, Linda
Sütterlin, Stefan
Lugo, Ricardo Gregorio
Abstract / Description
Guilt is a moral emotion that is often looked upon as a negative trait. However, studies show that some individuals are more predisposed to think, feel and act in a more ethical manner because of a lower threshold to experience guilt. Some theories of helping behaviour emphasize the evolutionary mechanisms, while other theories stress the importance of social variables. This study investigated whether guilt proneness as a dispositional trait can be associated with prosocial behaviour. Five hundred sixty-nine participants reported in an online survey their own levels of guilt proneness, frequency of prosocial behaviour, and related cognitions such as empathy. This study is among the first to demonstrate how guilt proneness combined with empathy can explain additional variance in prosocial behaviour. The findings also indicate gender differences in the precursors of prosocial behaviour, suggesting women are more influenced by the effects of guilt proneness on prosocial behaviour than men.
Keyword(s)
guilt proneness guilt empathy personality prosocial behaviour helping behaviour genderPersistent Identifier
Date of first publication
2016-05-31
Journal title
Europe's Journal of Psychology
Volume
12
Issue
2
Page numbers
260–270
Publisher
PsychOpen GOLD
Publication status
publishedVersion
Review status
peerReviewed
Is version of
Citation
Torstveit, L., Sütterlin, S., & Lugo, R. G. (2016). Empathy, guilt proneness, and gender: Relative contributions to prosocial behaviour. Europe's Journal of Psychology, 12(2), 260–270. https://doi.org/10.5964/ejop.v12i2.1097
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ejop.v12i2.1097.pdfAdobe PDF - 406.54KBMD5: 7935e43d038142722365d4433987c2bf
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Author(s) / Creator(s)Torstveit, Linda
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Author(s) / Creator(s)Sütterlin, Stefan
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Author(s) / Creator(s)Lugo, Ricardo Gregorio
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PsychArchives acquisition timestamp2018-11-21T09:59:41Z
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Made available on2018-11-21T09:59:41Z
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Date of first publication2016-05-31
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Abstract / DescriptionGuilt is a moral emotion that is often looked upon as a negative trait. However, studies show that some individuals are more predisposed to think, feel and act in a more ethical manner because of a lower threshold to experience guilt. Some theories of helping behaviour emphasize the evolutionary mechanisms, while other theories stress the importance of social variables. This study investigated whether guilt proneness as a dispositional trait can be associated with prosocial behaviour. Five hundred sixty-nine participants reported in an online survey their own levels of guilt proneness, frequency of prosocial behaviour, and related cognitions such as empathy. This study is among the first to demonstrate how guilt proneness combined with empathy can explain additional variance in prosocial behaviour. The findings also indicate gender differences in the precursors of prosocial behaviour, suggesting women are more influenced by the effects of guilt proneness on prosocial behaviour than men.en_US
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Publication statuspublishedVersion
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Review statuspeerReviewed
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CitationTorstveit, L., Sütterlin, S., & Lugo, R. G. (2016). Empathy, guilt proneness, and gender: Relative contributions to prosocial behaviour. Europe's Journal of Psychology, 12(2), 260–270. https://doi.org/10.5964/ejop.v12i2.1097
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ISSN1841-0413
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Persistent Identifierhttps://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12034/1000
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Persistent Identifierhttps://doi.org/10.23668/psycharchives.1192
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Language of contenteng
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PublisherPsychOpen GOLD
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Is version ofhttps://doi.org/10.5964/ejop.v12i2.1097
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Keyword(s)guilt pronenessen_US
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Keyword(s)guilten_US
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Keyword(s)empathyen_US
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Keyword(s)personalityen_US
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Keyword(s)prosocial behaviouren_US
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Keyword(s)helping behaviouren_US
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Keyword(s)genderen_US
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Dewey Decimal Classification number(s)150
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TitleEmpathy, guilt proneness, and gender: Relative contributions to prosocial behaviouren_US
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DRO typearticle
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Issue2
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Journal titleEurope's Journal of Psychology
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Page numbers260–270
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Volume12
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Visible tag(s)Version of Record