Understanding the Psychology of Guilt – The Role of Relational Utility in Guilt and Regret – Chapter 3

Relational utility refers to the value of another person for the
attainment of one’s future goals through social interaction. Nelissen
(2014) found that relational utility influences the intensity of guilt
feelings. Specifically, people would feel stronger guilt for hurting
the victim if this victim has a higher relational utility than a low
relational utility. However, previous research suggested that regret
is typically experienced when one’s own benefit is involved.
Regret, a highly related emotion of guilt, was not measured in the
Nelissen (2014)’s research. In the present research, we examined
the role of relational utility in experienced guilt and regret and
explored whether the effect of relational utility on regret can explain
the relation between relational utility and guilt. Specifically, we
attempt to replicate and extend Nelissen’s (2014) Study 1 by
adding a measure of regret. We did not replicate the effect of
relational utility on guilt in both two Studies with different sample
sizes and we only found the effect of relational utility on regret in
our Study 1. But we did not find this effect in our Study 2. Possible
reasons for the contradictory findings of the two studies are
discussed.