Sex differences in the attribution of shame and guilt

This study examined how the sex of a participant could moderate the elicitation of shame and guilt. Four hundred ninety students (107 men and 383 women) between the age of 17 and 20 (M=18.66, SD=.80) volunteered to participate. Moderated multiple regression analyses indicated an interaction effect between sex and external attribution with men likely to attribute experienced guilt to external stable causes while both sexes experienced more guilt when they attributed the cause of an event to external, unstable causes. External attributional styles may therefore be responsible for the differences in the experience of guilt in men and women. These results emphasize the importance of contextual appraisal in the elicitation of guilt.