It's late on a workday, and while everyone has gone home you stay for a video call with a client. Minutes before the call you discover you left your headset at home. Searching the office, you find a pair of expensive noise-canceling headphones in the drawer of a colleague's desk. You take them for the call. After, just as you take the headphones off, they accidentally crack and break. Startled, you put them back in the drawer, knowing you'll have to face your colleague in the morning.
Would you feel terrible about using your colleague's headphones and then having them break? As it turns out, not everybody does. But those who do feel guilty in situations like this often become the organization's best and most committed employees.
Guilt proneness is the anticipation of guilt feelings in a situation where you behave badly or fail to meet your expectations of yourself. Because feeling guilty is an unpleasant experience, people with high guilt proneness behave in ways that prevent situations that may trigger guilt. They work harder and do more than they are asked so that they exceed expectations rather than underperform. They show genuine concern for the feelings of other people, put others ahead of themselves, and collaborate so that they satisfy rather than disappoint their colleagues. As a result, guilt proneness has become the marker of successful employees, committed teammates, and responsible leaders.
But Guilt Proneness Doesn't Always Serve You Well
But what about situations where you can't both be successful and care for others? In competition, for instance, everyone wants to win but only one competitor can achieve this, leaving everyone else disappointed. Would guilt proneness still be an advantage in these situations?
In our research we investigated the competitive motivation of people with high versus low guilt proneness. We tested whether it is the same or different from their general motivation, and what the difference does to their decision to enter or avoid competitive situations. One study looked at amateur players of catchball. Catchball is a game similar to volleyball, except that players can catch and hold the ball before passing it over the net. We surveyed over 900 players from numerous amateur leagues operated by Mamanet, Israel's largest catchball association. These leagues are competitive, with regional and national championships to play for. But like any amateur sport, people may also play just for fun.
We surveyed the players on their guilt proneness, general and competitive motivation, and asked them how they preferred their team play. Some teams are serious about winning. They give most of the playing time to their best players, while the less-skilled watch from the bench. Other teams play for the enjoyment of all players and divide playing time equally between everyone, even if it hurts their chances to win. Players with higher competitive motivation displayed a stronger preference for a play-to-win strategy. But they were also the ones with relatively low guilt proneness. Players with high guilt proneness reported high general motivation but they were significantly less competitive.
People With High and Low Guilt Proneness Take Different Paths
Another study examined the relationship between guilt proneness, competitive motivation, and career choice. We surveyed 227 medical residents and interns in a hospital on their choice of medical specialty. In earlier studies we found that surgical specialties, for example, orthopedics, cardiology, and plastic surgery, are perceived as more competitive than other medical fields. Does a doctor's guilt proneness affect that doctor's chances to become a surgeon? We measured the doctors' guilt proneness, general and competitive motivation, and asked them to list the specialties in which they applied for residency. Highly guilt-prone doctors reported higher general motivation, but it was those with lower guilt proneness that had the edge in competitive motivation. And, as we expected, those more competitive doctors were more likely to pursue a career in surgery. We were happy to find that general motivation and choice of specialty were statistically unrelated, meaning we can find highly motivated doctors in any medical field. But competitive motivation is a special kind of motivation, and so it is those doctors driven by a desire to be better and compare favorably to others that tend to try and become surgeons.
Our results suggest that if you are highly guilt-prone, chances are you are a motivated and committed worker. This probably means good things for you at work. At the same time, competitive environments might not be where you feel most comfortable, and you may have trouble putting forth your best effort in such contexts. For managers and employers, if your success comes from your employees performing at their best, then guilt proneness is a quality you should look for in job candidates. But if you operate in a competitive environment, and success requires you to not just be good but be better than others, then employees with lower guilt proneness will work the hardest to achieve this goal.
For Further Reading
Haran, U., Van Dijk, D., Barina, M., Krief, M., & Rosenzweig, S. (2023). Winning isn't everything: Guilt proneness and competitive vs. non‐competitive motivation. Journal of Personality. https://doi.org/10.1111/jopy.12834
Uriel Haran is an associate professor of management at Ben-Gurion University. He studies the social factors that shape our decision-making and motivation.
Dina Van Dijk is an associate professor of health policy and management at Ben-Gurion University. She studies work motivation and regulatory focus processes in leadership.
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