Gender differences in guilt aversion in Korea and the United Kingdom

Guilt aversion, which describes the tendency to reduce the discrepancy between a partner’s expectation and his/her actual outcome, is a key driving force for cooperation in both the East and West. A recent study based on functional magnetic resonance imaging and online behavioral experiments reporte...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Scientific reports Vol. 12; no. 1; pp. 8187 - 10
Main Authors: Nihonsugi, Tsuyoshi, Tanaka, Toshiko, Haruno, Masahiko
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: London Nature Publishing Group UK 17.05.2022
Nature Publishing Group
Nature Portfolio
Subjects:
631/378
631/477
Affect
Aversion
Cognitive ability
Female
Functional magnetic resonance imaging
Gender
Gender differences
Guilt
Humanities and Social Sciences
Humans
Magnetic Resonance Imaging
Male
multidisciplinary
Neurosis
Regression analysis
Science
Science (multidisciplinary)
Sex differences
Sex Factors
Trust
United Kingdom > UK
ISSN:2045-2322, 2045-2322
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:Guilt aversion, which describes the tendency to reduce the discrepancy between a partner’s expectation and his/her actual outcome, is a key driving force for cooperation in both the East and West. A recent study based on functional magnetic resonance imaging and online behavioral experiments reported that men show stronger guilt aversion than women and also suggested that men’s predominance in guilt aversion arises from stronger sensitivity to social norms. However, since the participants of that study were all Japanese, it remains unaddressed how common the gender difference in guilt aversion is. Here, we conducted online behavioral studies on people from Korea and the UK (Korea; n  = 294, UK; n  = 347) using the same trust game. We confirmed that men exhibit stronger guilt aversion than women in both countries. Furthermore, consistent with the Japanese study, our Lasso regression analysis for UK participants revealed that Big Five Conscientiousness (rule-based decision) correlated with guilt aversion in men. In contrast, guilt aversion in Korean men correlated with Big Five Neuroticism. Thus, our results suggest that gender differences in guilt aversion are universal but the underlying cognitive processes may be influenced by cultural differences.
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ISSN:2045-2322
2045-2322
DOI:10.1038/s41598-022-12163-y