How Does Guilt Affect Our Body's Responses?

What you need to know

This study examined how feelings of guilt affect various bodily responses in healthy adults
Guilt produced a unique pattern of physiological responses compared to other emotions like amusement, disgust, and sadness
Key differences were found in stomach activity, sweating, swallowing, and heart rate variability during guilt
Understanding guilt’s physical effects may help develop treatments for conditions involving excessive or deficient guilt

Background on guilt and the body’s responses

Guilt is a negative emotion we feel when we believe we’ve done something wrong or caused harm to others. While we often describe guilt as a “gut feeling” or say it weighs on us physically, little research has actually examined how guilt affects our body’s involuntary responses.

Our bodies react to emotions through the autonomic nervous system, which controls involuntary functions like heart rate, breathing, and digestion. This system has two main parts:

The sympathetic nervous system, which activates the body’s “fight or flight” response
The parasympathetic nervous system, which promotes relaxation and energy conservation

Previous research has shown that basic emotions like fear and happiness produce distinct patterns of autonomic nervous system activity. However, the physical effects of more complex social emotions like guilt have not been well-studied.

How the study worked

To examine guilt’s physiological signature, researchers recruited 95 healthy adults to participate in a video-watching task. Participants first completed a questionnaire about their attitudes and behaviors. They were then shown a series of short video clips designed to elicit different emotions:

Guilt
Amusement
Disgust
Sadness
Pride
Neutral (no strong emotion)

Before each video, participants saw a statement supposedly based on their questionnaire responses, like “You donate less than the average Canadian.” This was meant to make the guilt-inducing videos feel more personally relevant.

While watching the videos, participants had several physiological responses measured:

Stomach activity (electrogastrography)
Skin sweating (electrodermal activity)
Swallowing rate
Heart rate variability (respiratory sinus arrhythmia)
Heart rate (interbeat interval)
Breathing rate

After each video, participants reported which emotion they primarily felt. The researchers then compared the physiological patterns associated with guilt to those of the other emotions.

Key findings

The study found that guilt produced a unique pattern of bodily responses compared to other emotions:

Stomach activity

Guilt was associated with slower stomach contractions compared to amusement, pride, and neutral states. However, stomach activity during guilt was faster than during disgust and sadness. This suggests guilt has a distinct effect on digestion.

Skin sweating

Surprisingly, guilt led to less sweating (measured by electrodermal activity) compared to amusement, disgust, pride, and sadness. This was unexpected, as guilt is typically thought of as an arousing emotion that would increase sweating.

Swallowing

Participants swallowed less frequently during guilt compared to disgust and sadness, but more than during neutral states. The researchers suggest this could relate to the subjective feeling of a “dry mouth” often reported during emotional distress.

Heart rate variability

Guilt was associated with greater heart rate variability (measured by respiratory sinus arrhythmia) compared to neutral states, pride, and sadness. Higher heart rate variability suggests increased parasympathetic nervous system activity during guilt.

Heart rate

Heart rate during guilt was slower compared to pride, but did not differ significantly from other emotions.

Breathing rate

Breathing was slower during guilt compared to amusement, but did not differ from other emotions.

What this means

Overall, the study found that guilt produces a mixed pattern of sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous system activation. This means some bodily responses associated with arousal or stress are activated, while others associated with relaxation are also engaged.

This mixed pattern sets guilt apart from basic emotions like fear (which strongly activates the sympathetic system) or contentment (which activates the parasympathetic system). The distinct physiological signature of guilt likely reflects its complex nature as a social emotion that motivates reparative behavior.

Conclusions

Guilt produces a unique pattern of involuntary bodily responses in healthy adults
Key differences are seen in stomach activity, sweating, swallowing, and heart rhythms during guilt compared to other emotions
Guilt involves a mix of bodily arousal and relaxation responses, rather than purely activating stress systems
Understanding guilt’s physical effects may help develop treatments for conditions involving problematic guilt, like obsessive-compulsive disorder or psychopathy
More research is needed to clarify how guilt’s bodily signature compares to closely related emotions like shame

This study provides some of the first evidence for how the experience of guilt manifests in our bodies. The findings lay the groundwork for future research on how guilt develops in children, differs across cultures, and may be altered in various psychological conditions. Understanding the physical basis of guilt could ultimately lead to new ways to detect or modulate guilty feelings when they become excessive or deficient.