Guilt drives prosociality across 20 countries

Catherine Molho (), Ivan Soraperra, Jonathan Schulz and Shaul Shalvi
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Catherine Molho: University of Toulouse Capitole
Ivan Soraperra: University of Amsterdam
Shaul Shalvi: University of Amsterdam

Nature Human Behaviour, 2025, vol. 9, issue 10, 2199-2211

Abstract: Abstract Impersonal prosociality is considered a cornerstone of thriving civic societies and well-functioning institutions. Previous research has documented cross-societal variation in prosociality using monetary allocation tasks such as dictator games. Here we examined whether different societies may rely on distinct mechanisms—guilt and internalized norms versus shame and external reputation—to promote prosociality. We conducted a preregistered experiment with 7,978 participants across 20 culturally diverse countries. In dictator games, we manipulated guilt by varying information about the consequences of participants’ decisions, and shame by varying observability. We also used individual- and country-level measures of the importance of guilt over shame. We found robust evidence for guilt-driven prosociality and wilful ignorance across countries. Prosociality was higher when individuals received information than when they could avoid it. Furthermore, more guilt-prone individuals (but not countries) were more responsive to information. In contrast, observability by strangers had negligible effects on prosociality. Our findings highlight the importance of providing information about the negative consequences of individuals’ choices to encourage prosocial behaviour across cultural contexts.

Date: 2025
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DOI: 10.1038/s41562-025-02286-3

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