How bodily expressions of emotion after norm violation influence perceivers' moral judgments and prevent social exclusion: A socio-functional approach to nonverbal shame display

How we learn social norms: a three-stage model for social norm learning

As social animals, humans are unique to make the world function well by developing, maintaining, and enforcing social norms. As a prerequisite among these norm-related processes, learning social norms can act as a basis that helps us quickly coordinate with others, which is beneficial to social inclusion when people enter into a new environment or experience certain sociocultural changes. Given the positive effects of learning social norms on social order and sociocultural adaptability in daily life, there is an urgent need to understand the underlying mechanisms of social norm learning. In this article, we review a set of works regarding social norms and highlight the specificity of social norm learning. We then propose an integrated model of social norm learning containing three stages, i.e., pre-learning, reinforcement learning, and internalization, map a potential brain network in processing social norm learning, and further discuss the potential influencing factors that modulate social norm learning. Finally, we outline a couple of future directions along this line, including theoretical (i.e., societal and individual differences in social norm learning), methodological (i.e., longitudinal research, experimental methods, neuroimaging studies), and practical issues.

Feeling One Thing and Doing Another: How Expressions of Guilt and Shame Influence Hypocrisy Judgment

The present study investigated how people, as uninvolved social observers (i.e., those not affected by the emotion expresser's behavior), judge hypocrisy in a target who publicly expresses their self-conscious emotions (i.e., shame and guilt) after making an immoral decision, then repeats the same immoral behavior again. Results across the two studies conducted showed that participants viewed the target as more hypocritical when the target expressed guilt (vs. shame) for their past misdeed and then committed the same act again. The present study suggests that social perceivers tend to infer expressions of guilt (and of shame to a lesser degree) as signaling future changes, which is reflected in judgments of hypocrisy. The study further discusses implications for the social functions of emotional expression and communication.

Putting a Spotlight on the Ostracizer: Intentional Workplace Ostracism Motives

Workplace ostracism is a prevalent and detrimental type of mistreatment. To curtail this harmful behavior, researchers need to identify who is more likely to intentionally ostracize others at work and the motives that drive them to do so. Past reviews of workplace ostracism focus primarily on the outcomes of ostracism, and the few that address the antecedents often examine a limited set of variables. We examined themes in the ostracism literature and determined that employees intentionally ostracize others due to either punitive or defensive motives. Punitive motives are focused on protecting the interests of the group, whereas defensive motives pertain to defending the interests of the self. We present a model of the ostracizer based on these motives and the associated perceptions of threat and negative emotions that precipitate ostracism. Our model provides an extension of the workplace ostracism literature by presenting a testable theoretical framework, rooted in appraisal theory, to explain why and when employees are likely to ostracize others at work. We also provided suggestions for an expansion of the ostracizer motives literature, with the goal of encouraging research that provides greater understanding of the perspective of the ostracizer.