Guilt and Shame

[Shadow Wolf]

I believe it is an evolved mechanism for social animals to aid in group cohesion. Social animals do not fare well on their own, while group living and cooperation greatly increases individual survival odds. And we see a sense of morality in general (including guilt and shame) in all human cultures, and we even see behaviors that suggest these things in other animals. Most dog owners, for example, know their dog's posture and demeanor changes when they have done something that upsets or angers us, knowing they did something wrong. We also see "time out" being used in bonobo troupes. And it works because isolation and rejection are painful and destructive to social animals.

 

[The Hammer]

I believe it is an evolved mechanism for social animals to aid in group cohesion. Social animals do not fare well on their own, while group living and cooperation greatly increases individual survival odds. And we see a sense of morality in general (including guilt and shame) in all human cultures, and we even see behaviors that suggest these things in other animals. Most dog owners, for example, know their dog's posture and demeanor changes when they have done something that upsets or angers us, knowing they did something wrong. We also see "time out" being used in bonobo troupes. And it works because isolation and rejection are painful and destructive to social animals.

While I agree with the majority of your post, I wanted to point out that dogs don't particularly feel guilty. We anthropomorphise it on them, what we are seeing is typically fear.

Do Dogs Feel Guilt? Here's What We Know About What Dogs Think

 

[Evangelicalhumanist]

Emotions come in various forms -- some are cognitive, while others are not. Emotions raised by physical states of the body are generally non-cognitive: hunger and thirst, for example, cause drinking and eating when old enough, but simply crying (an emotional response) in infancy.

Guilt and shame are not such emotions: they require some cognition. Infants have no guilt because they have no knowledge of right or wrong, and no shame because they have no sense of the internal emotional states of other beings. These develop fairly rapidly, but only as the child simultaneously learns about right and wrong and comes to accept the internal emotional being of other people than themselves.

 

[LightofTruth]

Rom 2:14 For when Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do what the law requires, they are a law to themselves, even though they do not have the law.
Rom 2:15 They show that the work of the law is written on their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness, and their conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse them

A powerful statement about some who do not even have the law. They can do the work of the law because it's written on their hearts. They have a conscience too. And conflicting thoughts to accuse or excuse.

 

[Audie]

Hmmm... Good question! It's not exclusively a human emotion.

The dog has no idea except he saw the
boss coming. They are very good at body
language- a lot better than the owner who
could not tell the dog is so worried and
trying to appease him. Its definitely not
funny. Or showing "guilt".

 

[Deidre]

Knowing right from wrong, brings about the ability to feel shame, guilt and the like. I think psychopaths, sociopaths, etc lack a well developed conscience, so they don't feel shame and guilt. Or it's limited. I think that feeling badly about wronging another person (as an example of something that could cause shame) isn't a bad thing, it shows that you have empathy, compassion, and want to make amends.