Failing to Meet the Standards: How Guilt Triggers Preferences for Unrelated Self-Improvement Products

Guilt has traditionally been described as a self-conscious emotion stemming from some violation of normatively held standard of behavior (Basil, Ridgeway, and Basil 2006; Heidenreich 1968) and is often viewed as an interpersonal emotion arising from concerns over a transgression against others (Baumeister, Stillwell, and Heatherton 1994). This research examines a novel downstream consequence of guilt, namely, preferences for self-improvement products in domains unrelated to the source of the guilt. Previous work on the downstream consequences of guilt has largely examined two types of outcomes. First, the experience of guilt leads individuals to engage in actions allowing for direct reparation of the wrong-doing (e.g., Dahl, Honea, and Manchanda 2005; Frijda, Kuipers, and ter Schure 1989). Second, guilt can lead to out-of-domain downstream consequences wherein the activation of guilt in one context can lead to prosocial behaviors in a second context (Konecni 1972; Regan et al. 1972). In other words, research suggests that people can take direct or indirect means of resolving guilt. Such behaviors have been attributed to resolving the negative emotions associated with guilt by repairing the mood or engaging in impression management (Cialdini et al. 1987).