Shame for money: Shame enhances the incentive value of economic resources

Shame leads to devaluation of the social self,and thus to a desire to improve self-esteem. money,which is related to the notion of one's ability,may help people demonstrate competence and gain self-esteem and respect from others. based on the perspectives of feelings-as-information and threatened ego,we tested the hypothesis that a sense of shame heightens the desire for money,prompting self-interested behaviors as reflected by monetary donations and social value orientation. the results showed that subjects in the shame condition donated less money (experiment 1) and exhibited more self-interested choices in the modified decomposed game (experiment 2). the desire for money as reflected in overestimated coin sizes mediated the effect of shame on self-interested behavior. our findings suggest that shame elicits the desire to acquire money to amend the threatened social self and improve self-esteem; however,it may induce a self-interested inclination that could harm social relationships.