Author: Paul Ratner / Source: Big Think
- Scientists studied how people view shame in 15 societies across the world.
- Human societies developed shame as a way for people to act in the group’s interest.
- Shame acts like pain, warning us of a threat to our long-term wellbeing.
In the age of the Internet, shame has acquired a new side – you can now be shamed by thousands of people at once (who have probably little actual knowledge of what happened).
But while often destructive and painful, shame can be integral to our ability to survive in a group, says new study. The function of shame, it appears, is to stop us from being too selfish.For the study, the researchers interviewed 899 people from around the world, focusing on 15 smaller societies in places like the Andes in Ecuador, the island of Mauritius, and a remote part of Siberia.
Daniel Sznycer from the University of Montreal in Canada and his fellow researchers asked one group from every society what they thought about 12 hypothetical situations. These concerned how much shame a person of the same gender as them would feel if he or she was lazy, ugly or a…
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