Culture, gender, and moral emotions: The role of interdependent self-construal

This study examined the relationships between culture and gender, interdependent self-construal, and the moral emotions shame, guilt, and empathy. It was predicted that Asians (Asians and Asian Americans studying in the US) would report more shame, guilt, empathy, and interdependent self-construal than Americans. Women were predicted to report more shame, guilt, empathy, and interdependence than men. Interdependent self-construal was predicted to mediate the relationships between gender and culture, and each of the moral emotions. Self report measures completed by Asian (n = 45) and European American (n = 96) community college students revealed significant relationships between culture and the emotions of shame and guilt, with Asian students reporting more shame and European American students reporting more guilt. Significant cultural effects were not found for empathy. As predicted, interdependent self-construal mediated the culture-shame relationship. However, because mean differences for guilt were not in the predicted direction and effects for empathy were not significant, the mediator hypotheses for these relationships were not tested. Overall, women reported significantly more shame and guilt than men. Gender differences were not significant for empathy. Although the composite measure of interdependent self-construal did not mediate the relationships between gender and shame or gender and guilt, the "Maintaining Bonds" component did. The interaction effects of culture and gender on moral emotions and interdependent self-construal were not significant. This study suggests that individual differences in moral emotions can be explained, in part, by interdependent self-construal. Clinical implications and directions for future research are discussed.