Another Perspective on Guilt's Moral Status: The Romanian Case

Guilt is one of the emotions that are considered a perfect example for social and moral. Recently, a few studies investigate the less positive effects it has for others than the victim of the transgression. The purpose of the present study is to investigate whether the results that De Hooge et al. (2011) found could be replicated in the Romanian culture. 134 participants were divided into three groups: a group where guilt was induced, a group where a victim of somebody else's transgression was present and a control group. Our results replicate previous patterns in respect to guilt participants’ monetary divisions towards the victim but all the participants show a pattern of altruistic monetary division towards the others, which seems to indicate that guilt is indeed a moral emotion in this case.