Feeling Guilty, Acting Ashamed: The Role of Emotions on Morality and Rule-Violating Behaviors

The current study investigates how emotions influence adolescents’ everyday morality and how they influence rule-violating behavior. We focus on unconscious emotions (empathy and anger) and self-conscious emotions (shame and guilt). Our results show evidence that empathy partially mediates between guilt and morality, and anger fully mediates between shame and morality.