The Influence Of Shame On Interpersonal Trust: The Role Of The Presence Of Others

Shame is a negative emotion in terms of emotional potency,and some researchers believe that it is mainly associated with anxiety,depression,eating disorders and even triggers aggressive behaviour.However,as a self-aware emotion,shame also has a positive social function and is known as a moral emotion.Empirical studies have found that shame promotes cooperative behaviour,increases an individual’s willingness to donate and reduces deceitful behaviour.This suggests that shame can promote pro-social behaviour.China,influenced by Confucianism,has traditionally viewed shame as a positive moral emotion,but has focused more on theoretical elaboration and lacks empirical research,so it is necessary to explore the positive effects of shame empirically in the context of our culture.Trust is a fundamental requirement for long-term interpersonal interactions,and evidence from brain science also suggests that trust is consistent with reciprocity-related brain regions,making interpersonal trust a pro-social behaviour.So can shame promote interpersonal trust? This study will examine this.On the other hand,interpersonal trust is more likely to occur during social interactions,and social interactions cannot be separated from social contexts.The hypothesis of this study is that when individuals feel shame due to damaged self-image,they will engage in pro-social behaviour to repair the damaged self,and pro-social behaviour is more frequent in the overt social presence condition.Experiment 1 initially examined the direct effect of shame on interpersonal trust.Results showed that shame emotions promote interpersonal trust.Specifically,the shame emotion-initiated group invested more on average in the trust game task and responded faster when responding to trust-related words in the trust vocabulary decision task compared to the neutral emotion control group,with significant differences in data results.Experiment 2 explored the effect of different sources of shame on interpersonal trust by classifying shame into incapacitating and morally disordered emotions.The results showed that only moral dissonance shame promoted interpersonal trust.Specifically,the mean investment in the trust game task was significantly higher in the moral disobedience shame group than in the incapacity shame group and the neutral emotion control group,while there was no significant difference in the mean investment between the latter two.Experiment 3 added two social presence conditions to examine the effect of moral disobedience shame on interpersonal trust under the influence of the social environment.Results showed that the social presence condition played a facilitative role in the relationship between shame emotions affecting interpersonal trust.Specifically,compared to the neutral emotion control group,the shame-initiated group invested more amounts in both the eye picture and others present condition,and on average more in the others present condition,with significant differences in the data results.In summary,the findings suggest that only moral disorder shame promotes interpersonal trust,and that its promotion is better in the presence of others in public.This result reveals that shame can be used as a moral emotion to regulate individuals’ relationships with others in their surroundings.