tag:theconversation.com,2011:/id/topics/guilt-9470/articlesGuilt – The Conversation2023-01-25T22:08:38Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1979192023-01-25T22:08:38Z2023-01-25T22:08:38ZPlacebos reduce feelings of guilt – even when people know they’re taking one<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/506085/original/file-20230124-4836-ieb3gv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C2370%2C1695&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-vector/translucent-ghostly-hands-beating-man-concept-1028358583">GoodStudio/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Guilt is a double-edged sword. It can be a <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11031-017-9612-z">reminder to improve</a> and a motivation to apologise. It can also lead to <a href="https://espace.library.uq.edu.au/view/UQ:674717">pathological perfectionism and stress</a> and is also closely associated with <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/jts.21963">depression and post-traumatic stress disorder</a>.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, good and bad <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13548506.2020.1859558">guilt are common</a>, and there are few proven treatments to reduce unhealthy guilt.</p>
<p>To help solve the problem of too much guilt, a recent study published in Nature found that <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-022-25446-1">placebos can reduce feelings of guilt</a>, even when the person taking them knows they’re receiving placebos.</p>
<p>In the study, 112 healthy volunteers between the ages of 18 and 40 took part. Their guilt was measured at the beginning using questionnaires including the <a href="https://gospel-app.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/SSGS.pdf">state shame and guilt scale (SSGS)</a>. This questionnaire asks people whether they feel remorse or bad about something they’ve done. Next, the participants did an exercise intended to make them feel more guilty. The exercise involved writing a story about a time they had treated someone they loved unfairly.</p>
<p>The participants were then divided into three groups. One group received a “deceptive placebo”: a blue pill they were told was a real drug. Specifically, they were told that the pill contained phytopharmacon, a substance designed to reduce the feeling of guilt by making whoever took it feel calmer.</p>
<p>Another group received an “open-label placebo” – the same blue pill, but this group was told it was a placebo. They were told that placebos benefit many people through mind-body self-healing mechanisms.</p>
<p>The third group did not receive any treatment at all. This was the “control” group.</p>
<p>After getting the treatment, the guilty feelings were measured using the same questionnaires to see whether the deceptive placebo or open-label placebo was more effective than no treatment.</p>
<p>The main outcome reported in the study was that the deceptive placebo and the open-label placebo <em>combined</em> were more effective at reducing guilt than no treatment.</p>
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<img alt="A doctor holding a blue pill." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/506135/original/file-20230124-12-u60slt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/506135/original/file-20230124-12-u60slt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/506135/original/file-20230124-12-u60slt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/506135/original/file-20230124-12-u60slt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/506135/original/file-20230124-12-u60slt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/506135/original/file-20230124-12-u60slt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/506135/original/file-20230124-12-u60slt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">This blue pill will help to reduce your negative feelings of guilt.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/doctor-holding-blue-pill-163687727">Milos Vucicevic/Shutterstock</a></span>
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<h2>Overcoming the placebo paradox</h2>
<p>Open-label placebos are important because they overcome the “placebo paradox”. The paradox is that on the one hand <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23690944/">placebos have effects</a>, especially for pain, and <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29681327/">we know how they work</a>. Doctors are ethically bound to help their patients and this ethical force pushes them towards prescribing placebos. </p>
<p>On the other hand, traditional placebos are deceptive (patients think they are, or could be, a real treatment). Doctors are also ethically bound to avoid deceiving patients (<a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/20013484/">usually</a>) and this ethical force pushes them away from prescribing placebos (although it seems that most doctors have prescribed placebos <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23526969/">at least once</a>). Because open-label placebos do not involve deception, they overcome the paradox and pave the way for ethical (open-label) placebos to help patients, where appropriate.</p>
<p>While the novelty of this study must be applauded, it is not without it’s weaknesses.</p>
<p>First, the participants were healthy volunteers. They were not suffering from guilt before the experiment. It is unclear whether research in <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1447950/pdf/0931261.pdf">healthy volunteers translates</a> to people in actual clinical practice. Also, the measures of guilt were only taken up to 15 minutes after the placebos were given. The long-term effects (and real-life usefulness) of the placebos are therefore not known.</p>
<p>A bigger problem was that it lumped the effects of deceptive and open-label placebos together. The novelty of the study is that it uses open-label placebos, so lumping their effects with those of deceptive placebos dilutes the novelty. This was rather odd because when I dug into the supplementary material, it was clear that open-label placebos <em>alone</em> were more effective than no treatment for reducing guilt. It’s a shame that this was not the headline result.</p>
<h2>Encouraging</h2>
<p>The fact that open-label placebos can reduce pathological guilt, even by a tiny amount, is encouraging because <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26840547/">they can be used ethically</a> in cases where better treatments do not exist. Future studies need to look at the effects of open-label placebos in actual patients and follow them up for longer.</p>
<p>It is also a small leap from the promising results of this study to believe that if open-label placebos work, we might be able to “placebo ourselves” by giving ourselves <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/17439760.2020.1818807?journalCode=rpos20">positive suggestions</a> that make us feel better.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/197919/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jeremy Howick receives funding from the Medical Research Council (MRC) in the UK to investigate nocebo effects.</span></em></p>A novel study from Switzerland used dummy pills to help people overcome bad guilt.Jeremy Howick, Professor and Director of the Stoneygate Centre for Excellence in Empathic Healthcare, University of LeicesterLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1929262022-10-28T12:31:18Z2022-10-28T12:31:18ZHypocrisy is beneath them – political figures in the Trump era don’t bother concealing their misdeeds<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/491733/original/file-20221025-15-1by4y6.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=4%2C4%2C2991%2C2124&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Infowars founder Alex Jones in court during his Sandy Hook defamation damages trial in Waterbury, Conn., Sept. 22, 2022. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/NewtownShootingInfowars/13a675490f9a41948be942eaaa3b5f6e/photo?Query=Alex%20Jones%20Sandy%20Hook&mediaType=photo&sortBy=arrivaldatetime:desc&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=218&currentItemNo=23">Tyler Sizemore/Hearst Connecticut Media via AP, Pool, File</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>There seems to be no sense of shame or its cousin, guilt, in our time.</p>
<p>Conspiracy theorist Alex Jones tormented the parents of Sandy Hook’s murdered children by spreading the lie that the massacre was faked. The families sued. As the jury’s decision ordering Jones to pay almost US$1 billion to them was read in court on Oct. 12, 2022, Jones, appearing online from his studio, was “laughing and mocking the amounts being awarded,” <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/alex-jones-must-pay-965-million-in-damages-to-families-of-8-sandy-hoo-rcna51200">NBC News reported</a>.</p>
<p>GOP Georgia Senate candidate Herschel Walker, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/10/06/herschel-walker-abortion-allegations/">resolutely anti-abortion</a> – with “no exception” for rape, incest or the life of the mother – <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/03/us/politics/herschel-walker-abortion-report.html">denies allegations that he paid for a girlfriend’s abortion</a>. Missouri Republican <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/josh-hawley-seen-fleeing-trump-mob-riled-newly-released-jan-6-footage-rcna39490">Sen. Josh Hawley riled up the Capitol rioters</a> with a clenched fist salute on Jan. 6, 2021 – and then ran from those same rioters when they invaded the Capitol.</p>
<p>While Republicans are by far the most prominently shameless among politicians, the condition is bipartisan in some areas. Democrats and Republicans showed up on a long list of legislators caught <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/congress-stock-act-violations-senate-house-trading-2021-9#rep-tom-malinowski-a-democrat-from-new-jersey-13">violating a law that requires them to disclose stock trading</a>. </p>
<p>Shame and guilt seem equally foreign to many politicians and public figures these days. But here is what is different now from those in the past who behaved badly: Where once the lack of guilt and shame would have been cloaked by a veneer of virtuousness, today’s shameless see no need for that veil of hypocrisy. </p>
<p>For millennia, hypocrisy was the sneaky cloak of choice for miscreants. They used it to signal respect for society by pretending to play within its rules. </p>
<p>Now, they smirk. Hypocrisy is old-fashioned and, apparently, unnecessary. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/491735/original/file-20221025-13-sie92z.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A man in a blue jacket, white shirt and red tie is shown raising his fist on a screen in a large meeting." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/491735/original/file-20221025-13-sie92z.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/491735/original/file-20221025-13-sie92z.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/491735/original/file-20221025-13-sie92z.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/491735/original/file-20221025-13-sie92z.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/491735/original/file-20221025-13-sie92z.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/491735/original/file-20221025-13-sie92z.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/491735/original/file-20221025-13-sie92z.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">An image of Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., raising his fist to protesters outside the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, is displayed on July 21, 2022, during a hearing by the House Select Committee to investigate the Jan. 6 attack.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/an-image-of-us-senator-josh-hawley-raising-his-fist-to-news-photo/1242042110?phrase=hawley%20fist&adppopup=true">Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images</a></span>
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<h2>‘Willful dissembling’</h2>
<p>The Greek verb from which we derive “hypocrisy” and “hypocrite” originally meant “to respond.” <a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/hypocrite-meaning-origin">Over time, this verb and its cognate noun acquired a theatrical context</a>: a response or speech onstage. So in ancient times a hypocrite was someone playing a part; but the term was morally more or less neutral. </p>
<p>By the time of the New Testament, the word “hypocrite” had acquired the sense of willful dissembling, of playing a part with an intention to deceive. The role enacted involved assuming a good quality that in reality didn’t exist.</p>
<p><a href="https://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/k/kjv/kjv-idx?type=DIV2&byte=4488722">In Matthew 23:25-27</a>, Christ inveighs against the “scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!” who are “like unto whited sepulchers, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men’s bones, and of all uncleanness.” Their spotless exteriors conceal inner foulness.</p>
<p>Hypocrisy, then, suggests a disconnect between good qualities such as virtue, courage, or generosity and the corresponding vices – corruption, cowardice, greed – which a shiny surface conceals. </p>
<p>Victorian novels are rich in examples of hypocrites, who are sometimes villains and sometimes more or less amusing minor characters. <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Charles-Dickens-British-novelist">Dickens’ novels offer a gallery</a> of businessmen, clergymen, schoolmasters and others who present respectable exteriors but who in their private lives – and sometimes in public, too – are selfish and cruel. </p>
<p>Dickens had a genius for inventing appropriate names for such people. A few examples include Mssrs. <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Seth-Pecksniff">Pecksniff</a>, <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Edward-Murdstone">Murdstone</a>, <a href="https://www.qub.ac.uk/our-mutual-friend/BegGuide/veneering.htm">Veneering</a> and <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/charles-dickens/9123214/Mr-Pumblechook-My-favourite-Charles-Dickens-character.html">Pumblechook</a>, which furnish entertaining clues to the moral texture of these characters.</p>
<p>Naturally, readers thirst to see these Victorian hypocrites humbled, exposed – in a word, shamed. And the <a href="https://www.grammarphobia.com/blog/2009/03/how-shameless-can-shameful-be.html">definition of “shame” in the Oxford English Dictionary</a> turns out to have a distinctly Victorian flavor: “the painful emotion arising from the consciousness of something dishonoring, ridiculous, or indecorous to one’s own conduct or circumstances … or of being in a situation which offends one’s sense of modesty or decency.” </p>
<p>Most of the hypocrites encountered in Victorian novels are unmasked or humbled in the end. Though not all; <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Uriah-Heep">Uriah Heep</a> and <a href="https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803100109356">Littimer</a>, in “<a href="https://www.gutenberg.org/files/766/766-h/766-h.htm">David Copperfield</a>,” both exposed as villains near the end of the novel, are last glimpsed as model inmates in a creepy panopticonlike prison, as smarmy and sanctimonious as ever. They’re jailed, but not humbled.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/491744/original/file-20221025-15-wvd2nn.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A shirtless man with cloth tied over his bloodied eyes." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/491744/original/file-20221025-15-wvd2nn.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/491744/original/file-20221025-15-wvd2nn.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=382&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/491744/original/file-20221025-15-wvd2nn.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=382&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/491744/original/file-20221025-15-wvd2nn.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=382&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/491744/original/file-20221025-15-wvd2nn.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=480&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/491744/original/file-20221025-15-wvd2nn.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=480&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/491744/original/file-20221025-15-wvd2nn.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=480&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">When Oedipus learns he killed his father and married his mother, he gouges out his eyes in shame, as depicted in this theatrical play presented at the 63rd Avignon International Theatre festival in France in 2009.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/french-jacques-bonnaffe-as-oedipe-performs-a-scene-of-the-news-photo/88979287?phrase=Oedipus&adppopup=true">Anne-Christine Poujoulat/AFP via Getty Images</a></span>
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<h2>No more dissonance</h2>
<p>Moving from the 19th century to the 21st, the bad behavior currently on display is a little different from the Victorian version, or from the whited sepulchers of the Gospel passage. </p>
<p>Hypocrisy, from the language in Matthew to the villainy of a Murdstone, always used to suggest a disconnect or dissonance between what was seen in public and what was really lurking underneath. But today, there seems no such clear line of demarcation.</p>
<p>To begin with, there’s no firm sense of truth. What the record shows – videos, transcripts, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_zrd6xOqlcc">recordings</a> – often fails to convince at least one side of the public if it’s condemned by the perpetrator as a witch hunt or fake news. Journalist Carlos Lozada, in an illuminating recent essay titled “<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/22/opinion/trump-big-lie-big-joke.html">The Inside Joke That Became Trump’s Big Lie</a>,” called Donald Trump’s false claim that he won the 2020 election “a classic Trumpian projection … the lie is true and the truth is fake.” The description applies perfectly to the appalling lies of Alex Jones. </p>
<p>In such a topsy-turvy world, there’s no such thing as a hypocrite. Lozada points out that rather than hiding their rottenness beneath a show of virtue, the people whose antics we hear about daily seem to flaunt their true colors, if “true” is the right word. Their bad behavior is now acceptable, so it needs no disguise.</p>
<p>The moral balance encountered in Victorian novels, where hypocrites generally come to grief, now seems obsolete, almost a quaint relic. Greek tragedies don’t seem relevant either.</p>
<p>In Greek tragedy, the hero may make a mistake or be caught in an untenable situation. He may make a terrible decision that destroys others or himself. He may go mad and then recover his senses to view with horror the destruction he has caused. He may blame the gods for the devastation that has taken place. </p>
<p>But I can’t think of a case in which he pretends to be something he isn’t. </p>
<p>And shame is a key emotion in many tragedies. When Oedipus discovers he has committed the crimes whose perpetrator he has been pursuing, <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Oedipus-Greek-mythology">he blinds and exiles himself</a>. In other tragedies, <a href="http://classics.mit.edu/Sophocles/ajax.html">Ajax</a> and <a href="http://classics.mit.edu/Euripides/heracles.html">Heracles</a> unwittingly do terrible damage; when they recover their senses, they punish themselves.</p>
<p>The notion of hypocrisy seems to have come full circle, returning to its theatrical connotations, where a hypocrite was someone simply playing a part. We’re back to acting after all, and the stage is our country.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/192926/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Rachel Hadas does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Shame and guilt seem equally foreign to many politicians and public figures these days. Rather than cover their bad behavior with a veneer of hypocrisy, they revel in it, a classics scholar says.Rachel Hadas, Professor of English, Rutgers University - NewarkLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1803532022-03-31T13:14:34Z2022-03-31T13:14:34ZGuilt: when it is useful – and what to do if it takes over your life<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/455571/original/file-20220331-14-atvrba.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=65%2C59%2C4312%2C2804&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Guilt can wreck out life.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Many people feel guilty when watching horrific things happen to others on the news. It can also hit when we think about a time we broke someone’s heart, snapped at a child or deeply hurt a friend’s feelings. In fact, most of us feel guilt from time to time, and it can be a deeply unpleasant experience. </p>
<p>But why do we feel guilty so easily – what purpose does it serve? And what can we do if it becomes unbearable? Luckily, psychological research provides some answers.</p>
<p>Guilt alerts us that our moral standards have been somehow violated. It is a feeling of remorse over something terrible that we contribute to, or ignore, which explains why so many people feel guilty when watching the news. </p>
<p>People differ in how easily they feel guilt, based on their personality and life experiences. Those who have high levels of empathy or care a lot about social relationships <a href="https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.00467/full?utm_source=S-TWT&utm_medium=SNET&utm_campaign=ECO_FPSYG_XXXXXXXX_auto-dlvrit">may be more prone to feeling guilty</a>, while people who have high levels of “dark personality traits”, such as psychopathy or narcissism, may be less inclined to do so. </p>
<p>Guilt is often contrasted with shame, which describes <a href="https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2015-54659-002">self-demonisation</a>. When you feel guilty, you think that you did something wrong; when you feel shame, you feel that there is something wrong with you for doing that thing. While shame is rarely useful, and often leads to social withdrawal, guilt may have either positive or negative consequences.</p>
<p>You can experience guilt relating to various life circumstances. For example, <a href="https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/4/2461">eco-guilt</a> relates to feeling guilt about the environment. <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/15325024.2018.1507965?casa_token=vrujYJc0fHMAAAAA%3AgwmImUfpCnvRSj1kDRKPzNCZJ4f9xk2VDfjL-5g5jfsHJnV0wH-W3cp7hzZJ0wfnLF_cQzMcp1eHkA">Survivor’s guilt</a> describes guilt experienced by those who got away unharmed from a dangerous situation, such as surviving a war or COVID, when so many other people died. But we also experience guilt when we did something we should not have done. </p>
<h2>Guilt can be good for you</h2>
<p>Guilt can be what researchers call “adaptive”, meaning it can benefit us and help us survive. When we feel guilty, it is a sign that our <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/8165271/">moral compass</a> is working, and we can tell the difference between what is right and wrong. This ultimately helps people get on with and care for one another. </p>
<p>Guilt can help us <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0146167211435796">connect with others</a>, especially when bad things happen to them. Seeing someone suffer and feeling guilty makes us more likely to engage in <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11031-017-9612-z">“reparative behaviours”</a>, such as extending an olive branch or being exceptionally generous with our resources, all of which eases the guilt we feel. Experiencing guilt can motivate people to <a href="https://psycnet.apa.org/record/1995-00448-001">apologise</a> for doing something bad, thereby minimising inequalities in society.</p>
<p>In the same way, guilt can be useful in romantic relationships, too, helping us to treat our partner well – and make up for it if we fail to do so.</p>
<p>When it comes to witnessing wars, famines or disease outbreaks on the news, guilt may inspire us to volunteer or donate money. Watching the generosity of other people who play an active role in helping others is also <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5604077/">guilt-provoking</a>, which can in turn activate us to take similar action – thus paying forward. </p>
<h2>When guilt gets too much</h2>
<p>But guilt can also have negative consequences and become “maladaptive”. There are two types of guilt which are particularly <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0887618517303754?casa_token=-HN63vWRK7YAAAAA:Lk1pC-sZdssC9aZAytq_OxVx9kW4qnlCU-knL-xj_I8VJfuJhm3gcFVT4Z9LyVfKqM2nyFVZFA">damaging to us</a>: free-floating guilt and contextual guilt. Free-floating guilt occurs when you experience a general feeling of guilt; you feel you are not a good person. On the other hand, contextual guilt relates to taking too much responsibility for something – such as endlessly trying to help an ex in all areas of their life because you feel bad about breaking up with them.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Image of a mother feeling stressed while kids play around her." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/455513/original/file-20220331-19-si9mkd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=111%2C55%2C6017%2C4079&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/455513/original/file-20220331-19-si9mkd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/455513/original/file-20220331-19-si9mkd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/455513/original/file-20220331-19-si9mkd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/455513/original/file-20220331-19-si9mkd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/455513/original/file-20220331-19-si9mkd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/455513/original/file-20220331-19-si9mkd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Many parents feel guilt on a daily basis.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/frustrated-stressed-single-african-mom-having-1413108830">fizkes/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>But in both cases, there’s nothing you can really do to reduce your feelings of guilt. Instead, the feelings and actions continue, which make them maladaptive. For example, if you constantly feel like a bad person, this may get in the way of forming new relationships – you may subconsciously sabotage them because you don’t feel you deserve them. And if your guilt never stops, you may spend so much time and energy taking actions to try to address it that you burn out, develop an anxiety disorder or become depressed.</p>
<p>When watching the news, you may start experiencing maladaptive guilt if you cannot pinpoint where the guilt is coming from – it may just become a general feeling. This could also be the case if you feel personal responsibility for the bad news even though there is little you can do to change the circumstances.</p>
<p>The best way to deal with a guilty conscience is to take action that is <em>appropriate</em> to the situation. If it is an eco-guilt you experience, it may involve making small changes in your own life to ensure you live in a more sustainable way. You can also engage in community activities that help others understand the catastrophic climate situation. And if you feel guilty about how you treated a friend, it makes sense to apologise and offer to help in some way. </p>
<p>If you are experiencing survivor’s guilt, you may want to consider writing a <a href="https://baylor-ir.tdl.org/handle/2104/10719">letter of self-forgiveness</a>, in which you detail what aspects of responsibility you want to take, show remorse, apologise to yourself and try to make amends. </p>
<p>The key in all these scenarios, however, is to ultimately let go of the pain. The world isn’t a fair place, and everybody makes mistakes sometimes. Endlessly blaming ourselves can be draining – and counter productive. To muster up the energy and drive we need to create positive change around us, we need to feel good about ourselves occasionally, too.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/180353/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jolanta Burke does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The best way to deal with a guilty conscience is to take action that is appropriate to the situation.Jolanta Burke, Senior Lecturer, Centre for Positive Psychology and Health, RCSI University of Medicine and Health SciencesLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1740092022-01-09T13:16:40Z2022-01-09T13:16:40ZHow social media can crush your self-esteem<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/439352/original/file-20220104-15-1n279an.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=4%2C0%2C994%2C567&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Using social media increases our natural tendency to compare ourselves. How does this affect our well-being?</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>We all have a natural tendency to compare ourselves to others, whether intentionally or not, online or offline. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.76.1.129">Such comparisons help us evaluate our own achievements</a>, skills, personality and our emotions. This, in turn, influences how we see ourselves.</p>
<p>But what impact do these comparisons have on our well-being? It depends on how much comparing we do. </p>
<p>Comparing ourselves on social media to people who are worse off than we are <a href="https://doi.org/10.1037/pspa0000204">makes us feel better</a>. Comparing ourselves to people who are doing better than us, however, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1037/pspa0000204">makes us feel inferior or inadequate instead</a>. The social media platform we choose also affects our morale, as do crisis situations like the COVID-19 pandemic.</p>
<p>As a PhD student in psychology, I am studying incels — men who perceive the rejection of women as the cause of their involuntary celibacy. I believe that social comparison, which plays as much a role in these marginal groups as it does in the general population, affects our general well-being in the age of social media.</p>
<h2>An optimal level of comparison</h2>
<p>The degree of social comparison that individuals carry out is thought to affect the degree of motivation they have. According to a study by researchers at Ruhr University in Bochum, Germany, there is an <a href="https://doi.org/10.1037/pspa0000204">optimal level of perceived difference between the self and others</a> that maximizes the effects of social comparison.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A woman sitting on a sofa, holding a cell phone in one hand and holding her head in distress with the other." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/439759/original/file-20220106-23-1fjgtki.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/439759/original/file-20220106-23-1fjgtki.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/439759/original/file-20220106-23-1fjgtki.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/439759/original/file-20220106-23-1fjgtki.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/439759/original/file-20220106-23-1fjgtki.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/439759/original/file-20220106-23-1fjgtki.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/439759/original/file-20220106-23-1fjgtki.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">When people compare themselves to others who appear to be better off, they feel inferior, disatisfied or inadequate.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Specifically, if we see ourselves as vastly superior to others, we will not be motivated to improve because we already feel that we are in a good position. Yet, if we perceive ourselves as very inferior, we will not be motivated to improve since the goal seems too difficult to achieve.</p>
<p>In other words, the researchers note, beyond or below the optimal level of perceived difference between oneself and another, a person no longer makes any effort. By perceiving oneself as inferior, the individual will experience negative emotions, guilt and lowered pride and self-esteem.</p>
<h2>Unrealistic comparisons on social media</h2>
<p>Social comparisons therefore have consequences both for our behaviour and for our psychological well-being. However, comparing yourself to others at a restaurant dinner does not necessarily have the same effect as comparing yourself to others on Facebook. It is easier to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1145/3313831.3376482">invent an exciting existence or embellish certain aspects of things on a social media platform than it is in real life</a>.</p>
<p>The advent of social media, which allows us to share content where we always appear in our best light, has led many researchers to consider the possibility that this amplifies unrealistic comparisons.</p>
<p>Research shows that the more time people spend on Facebook and Instagram, the more they compare themselves socially. This social comparison is linked, among other things, to lower self-esteem and higher social anxiety. </p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="A cartoon of a smiling woman on a social media post, but unhappy in real life." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/439760/original/file-20220106-25-1u9f04t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/439760/original/file-20220106-25-1u9f04t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=545&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/439760/original/file-20220106-25-1u9f04t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=545&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/439760/original/file-20220106-25-1u9f04t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=545&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/439760/original/file-20220106-25-1u9f04t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=685&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/439760/original/file-20220106-25-1u9f04t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=685&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/439760/original/file-20220106-25-1u9f04t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=685&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Many people share only positive moments in their lives on social media.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>A study conducted by researchers at the National University of Singapore <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/2056305120912488">explains these results</a> by the fact that people generally present positive information about themselves on social media. They can also enhance their appearance by using filters, which create the impression that there is a big difference between themselves and others.</p>
<p>In turn, researchers working at Facebook observed that the more people looked at content where people were sharing positive aspects of their lives on the platform, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1145/3313831.3376482">the more likely they were to compare themselves to others</a>.</p>
<h2>COVID-19: Less negative social comparison</h2>
<p>However, could the effect of this comparison in a particularly stressful context like the COVID-19 pandemic be different?</p>
<p>A study from researchers at Kore University in Enna, Italy, showed that before lockdowns, high levels of online social comparison were associated with greater distress, loneliness and a less satisfying life. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2020.110486">But this was no longer the case during lockdowns</a>.</p>
<p>One reason for this would be that by comparing themselves to others during the lockdown, people felt they were sharing the same difficult experience. That reduced the negative impact of social comparisons. So, comparing oneself to others online during difficult times can be a positive force for improving relationships and sharing feelings of fear and uncertainty.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Four female friends greeting each other on an online video call." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/439761/original/file-20220106-19-19r7g0x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/439761/original/file-20220106-19-19r7g0x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/439761/original/file-20220106-19-19r7g0x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/439761/original/file-20220106-19-19r7g0x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/439761/original/file-20220106-19-19r7g0x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/439761/original/file-20220106-19-19r7g0x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/439761/original/file-20220106-19-19r7g0x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The shared difficult experiences of COVID-19 lockdowns reduced the negative impacts of social comparisons.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>A different effect depending on the social media</h2>
<p>There are distinctions to be made depending on which social media platform a person is using. Researchers at the University of Lorraine, France, consider <a href="https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0248384">that social media platforms should not be all lumped together</a>.</p>
<p>For example, the use of Facebook and Instagram is associated with lower well-being, while Twitter is associated with more positive emotions and higher life satisfaction. One possible explanation: Facebook and Instagram are known to be places for positive self-presentation, unlike Twitter, where it is more appropriate to share one’s real opinions and emotions.</p>
<p>Trying to get social support on social media during the COVID-19 pandemic may reactivate negative emotions instead of releasing them, depending on which social media platform a person is using.</p>
<p>Many things motivate us to compare ourselves socially. Whether we like it or not, social media exposes us to more of those motivations. Depending on the type of content that is being shared, whether it is positive or negative, we tend to refer to it when we are self-evaluating. Sharing content that makes us feel good about ourselves and garners praise from others is nice, but you have to consider the effect of these posts on others.</p>
<p>Yet overall, I believe that sharing your difficulties in words, pictures or videos can still have positive effects and bring psychological benefits.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/174009/count.gif" alt="La Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sabrina Laplante ne travaille pas, ne conseille pas, ne possède pas de parts, ne reçoit pas de fonds d'une organisation qui pourrait tirer profit de cet article, et n'a déclaré aucune autre affiliation que son organisme de recherche.</span></em></p>Comparing ourselves to people who are worse off than we are on social media should make us feel better. The opposite is true.Sabrina Laplante, Candidate au doctorat en psychologie, Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM)Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1711932021-11-21T13:20:55Z2021-11-21T13:20:55ZFear of travelling: Canadians need to put travel risk into perspective<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/431577/original/file-20211111-27-3s7opj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=26%2C17%2C5860%2C3901&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Media coverage of public health advisories has caused anxiety in many citizens who may deem tourism activities too risky during the pandemic.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span></figcaption></figure><iframe style="width: 100%; height: 175px; border: none; position: relative; z-index: 1;" allowtransparency="" src="https://narrations.ad-auris.com/widget/the-conversation-canada/fear-of-travelling--canadians-need-to-put-travel-risk-into-perspective" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<p>The pandemic hit nearly two years ago, and since then Canadians’ fear of <a href="https://www.straight.com/living/covid-19-survey-reveals-almost-two-thirds-of-canadians-fear-plane-travel-live-events">travel has been a constant theme</a>. Tuning into daily COVID-19 briefings likely <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.janxdis.2020.102258">contributed to this heightened sense of fear</a>. </p>
<p>In March 2020, the federal government <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/canada-travel-international-covid-advisory-1.6220428">issued a blanket travel warning, which was only lifted</a> on Oct. 22, 2021. As recently as May 2021, <a href="https://www.wbfo.org/binational/2021-05-14/ontario-premier-blames-covid-variants-that-passed-too-easily-through-our-borders">Ontario Premier Doug Ford blamed travel and borders</a> for a rise in cases when evidence pointed to there being <a href="https://www.ctvnews.ca/health/coronavirus/more-than-80-per-cent-of-covid-19-cases-are-caused-by-community-exposures-statcan-1.5334236">other causes</a> for case increases like <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177%2F1048291120974358">lack of proper PPE</a>, <a href="https://doi.org/10.25318/1310077401-eng">community spread</a>, <a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/toronto/article-data-show-poverty-overcrowded-housing-connected-to-covid-19-rates/">overcrowded housing and poverty</a>.</p>
<p>The “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1533-8525.1997.tb00758.x">problem frame</a>” here is how certain messages shared during the pandemic have helped <a href="https://www.thestar.com/opinion/contributors/2021/02/01/the-government-needs-to-stop-distracting-us-with-the-irrational-fear-of-travel.html">maintain a fear of travel over time</a>. </p>
<p>As researchers whose work looks at travel and tourism, we were curious about the impact of COVID-19 briefings and the way media reported them on the industry. We think it’s time to put fear into perspective for the traveller.</p>
<h2>Discourses of blame and shame</h2>
<p>An <a href="https://scholarworks.umass.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1027&context=ttracanada_2021_conference">analysis</a> — published as part of the <a href="https://scholarworks.umass.edu/ttracanada_2021_conference">Travelling Towards Tomorrow Together: Travel and Tourism Research Association Canada conference</a> — of Canadian online news, noted how the media has perpetuated a fear of travel through narratives that emphasize safety, mistrust and guilt. </p>
<p>Reading, listening and watching the news has caused anxiety in many citizens who deem tourism activities <a href="https://www.macleans.ca/society/covid-19-has-drastically-affected-canadian-travel-spending/">too risky during the pandemic</a>. </p>
<p>Some news outlets reported on <a href="https://dx.doi.org/10.1007%2Fs10900-021-00971-8">inconsistent health-related messaging</a> and <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/explainer-travel-bans-quebec-1.5885323">the dangers of travel</a>, while others reported on an industry-sponsored study that showed there was little <a href="https://www.ctvnews.ca/health/coronavirus/flying-during-the-pandemic-new-reports-paint-differing-pictures-of-covid-19-danger-1.5162942">flying risk</a> if preventative measures were in place. This caused confusion. </p>
<p>These varying messages and subsequent reporting aren’t a total surprise. Especially considering how at the start of the pandemic, we faced an unknown virus, with minimal knowledge. Tests, treatments and prevention strategies have evolved, but different phases of the pandemic — and health-related messaging and media coverage — highlight how risk changed and evolved over time.</p>
<p>Regardless, media coverage of <a href="https://www.macleans.ca/longforms/covid-19-pandemic-canada-year-one/">changing government travel restrictions</a> and differing <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/27/science/face-mask-guidelines-timeline.html">health and safety guidelines</a> — like masking — exacerbated a <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/editorsblog/editor-blog-trust-1.5936535">discourse of mistrust</a> in <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/heapro/daaa140">media and in government officials</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A flight status display at an airport shows " src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/431578/original/file-20211111-21-r3mrak.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/431578/original/file-20211111-21-r3mrak.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/431578/original/file-20211111-21-r3mrak.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/431578/original/file-20211111-21-r3mrak.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/431578/original/file-20211111-21-r3mrak.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/431578/original/file-20211111-21-r3mrak.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/431578/original/file-20211111-21-r3mrak.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Avoiding leisure travel for the past 18 months has led to a significant impact on our mental well-being.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>How Canadians feel about travel</h2>
<p>An <a href="https://ca.travelpulse.com/news/impacting-travel/canadians-anxious-about-travel-support-closed-borders-and-vaccine-passports.html">April 2021 survey</a> found that 82 per cent of Canadians perceived taking a vacation as a large or moderate risk. </p>
<p>Feelings of guilt and <a href="https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/rethinking-travel-shaming-pandemic-trnd/index.html">travel shaming</a> influenced how Canadians <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/TR-05-2020-0195">felt about travelling</a> — many likely <a href="https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/45-28-0001/2020001/article/00051-eng.htm">thought they will be judged</a> for putting others at risk. </p>
<p>Politicians <a href="https://canadiantravelnews.ca/2021/03/05/travel-shaming-the-new-trend/">shamed Canadians who chose to travel</a> whether it was early in the pandemic (before any travel restrictions were in place), or later when tourism-related businesses advertised cheap domestic flights and trips. </p>
<p>When the government <a href="https://www.canada.ca/en/transport-canada/news/2021/01/government-of-canada-introduces-further-restrictions-on-international-travel.html">banned flights</a> to “sun destinations” in January 2021, many Canadians took it to heart and stayed home. Just four months later, messaging from the travel and tourism sector surfaced about it being up to Canadians to <a href="https://www.cp24.com/lifestyle/travel/save-summer-canadian-tourism-business-have-modest-expectations-ahead-of-crucial-season-1.5375161?">save summer tourism</a>. </p>
<p>After the Canadian government <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/canada-travel-international-covid-advisory-1.6220428">lifted global travel restrictions</a> on non-essential travel with <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/sandramacgregor/2021/10/22/canada-finally-ends-advisory-against-non-essential-travel-begun-in-march-2020/?">no press release</a>, the media reported on the problem frame. </p>
<p>Stories highlighted how “mindful” Canadians should be when <a href="https://toronto.ctvnews.ca/canadians-anxious-to-travel-south-this-winter-face-more-complex-travel-restrictions-1.5639560">travelling south</a> and some shared messages from epidemiologists that <a href="https://twitter.com/theagenda/status/1453869186145558530?s=27">we should keep our foot on the brake of travel</a> to keep incident rates low, while others focused on Canadians return to travel <a href="https://www.thestar.com/news/world/2021/10/31/trouble-in-paradise-for-struggling-caribbean-islands-a-prayer-for-return-of-canadian-tourists.html">helping struggling Caribbean islands</a>.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.newswire.ca/news-releases/canada-s-travel-rules-punitive-for-middle-class-families-888893039.html">Canadian Travel and Tourism Roundtable</a> — a group of Canadian tourism and travel businesses hoping to “reopen the economy” — recently called on the government to remove “non-science-based obstacles to international travel, such as expensive pre-departure PCR tests for fully vaccinated travellers, that disproportionately impact average Canadian families.”</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A young woman wearing a mask takes pictures in Barcelona, Spain. A building that looks like an old church is visible in the background." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/431579/original/file-20211111-27-1jjigk0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/431579/original/file-20211111-27-1jjigk0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/431579/original/file-20211111-27-1jjigk0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/431579/original/file-20211111-27-1jjigk0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/431579/original/file-20211111-27-1jjigk0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/431579/original/file-20211111-27-1jjigk0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/431579/original/file-20211111-27-1jjigk0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Canadians are among the most hesitant when considering an international leisure trip.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Perceived risk</h2>
<p>There are nuances to how <a href="https://doi.org/10.1300/J073v20n01_02">different cultures</a> perceive travel risk. Canadians normally <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/02508281.2021.1937450">find travel less risky than Americans and Australians</a>. However, a recent study about post-pandemic travel showed that Canadians were <a href="https://scholarworks.umass.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1008&context=ttracanada_2021_conference">more cautious</a> to travel than their American or European counterparts. </p>
<p>A columnist in the <em>Toronto Sun</em>, called Canadians out for being “<a href="https://torontosun.com/opinion/columnists/furey-while-americans-embrace-re-openings-canadians-remain-unjustifiably-afraid">unjustifiably afraid</a>” of travel. Travelling and flying always present a risk, but that <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/jtm/taaa212">risk is low</a> if mitigation measures and infection prevention are observed.</p>
<p>It’s important to note however, that after Alberta lifted its restrictions <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/health/alberta-fourth-wave-surge-hospitals-icu-covid-19-1.6197263">they faced a devastating surge in cases</a>. </p>
<p>Canadians are among the most hesitant when considering an international leisure trip, according to a <a href="https://www.visitbritain.org/sites/default/files/vb-corporate/international_covid-19_sentiment_research_wave_3_report_final.pdf">survey conducted by TCI Research</a>. The majority of them (81 per cent) have also paid close attention to media during the pandemic says <a href="https://www.ipsos.com/en-ca/news-polls/surveying-canadians-trust-media">an Ipsos survey</a> — actively seeking risk information which influences their <a href="https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.655860">perception and knowledge</a>.</p>
<h2>Managing travel risk and media messages</h2>
<p>Canadians perceive travel risk subjectively and reduce risk by remaining cautious and choosing <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/13683500.2020.1829571">not to travel</a>. </p>
<p>A <a href="https://www.destinationcanada.com/sites/default/files/archive/1504-Canadian%20Resident%20Sentiment%20-%20November%202%2C%202021/Resident%20Sentiment%20Tracking_November%202_EN.pdf">resident sentiment study</a> by Destination Canada shows that in recent months, feelings of safety have decreased or remained unchanged across five Canadian provinces. </p>
<p>But now that the vast majority of <a href="https://health-infobase.canada.ca/covid-19/vaccination-coverage/">Canadians are vaccinated</a>, and many tourism <a href="https://www.destinationcanada.com/sites/default/files/archive/1247-Rebuilding%20Traveller%20Confidence%3A%20The%20importance%20of%20keeping%20safety%20top%20of%20mind%20and%20in%20plain%20sight/SME-Guide_EN-Nov24.pdf">businesses</a> and <a href="https://travel.destinationcanada.com/covid-19-traveller-guidance">destinations</a> have implemented careful safety protocols for travellers, those feelings of safety should change. </p>
<p>It is time for Canadians to mitigate travel risks by adopting <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jdmm.2020.100502">objective risk management strategies</a>. </p>
<p>The risk of getting COVID-19 will not be zero, it will likely never be zero. People must continue to assess risk based on science, wear masks in public and pay attention in crowded areas. When vaccinated, Canadians should feel more comfortable travelling because travel professionals are working to <a href="https://wttc.org/COVID-19/SafeTravels-Global-Protocols-Stamp">keep us safe</a>, <a href="https://www.canada.ca/en/public-health/services/diseases/coronavirus-disease-covid-19/vaccines/life-after-vaccination.html">there is life after vaccination</a>.</p>
<p>Despite it being important to respect countries’ travel advisories to prevent the spread of COVID-19, avoiding leisure travel for the past 18 months has led to a significant impact on our <a href="https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/health-wellness/article/3141609/how-covid-19-travel-restrictions-impact-your-mental">mental well-being</a> and <a href="https://wttc.org/News-Article/WTTC-Economic-Trends-Report-reveals-COVID-19s-dramatic-impact-on-Travel-Tourism-around-the-world">a loss of jobs</a> across the tourism industry. </p>
<p>Now that restrictions are lifting and leisure travel is resuming, we need to be reminded that travel has <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177%2F0047287513496477">positive effects on our health and wellness</a>.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/171193/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Now that restrictions are lifting and leisure travel is resuming, we need to be reminded that travel has positive effects on our health and wellness.Kelley A. McClinchey, Teaching Faculty, Geography and Environmental Studies, Wilfrid Laurier UniversityFrédéric Dimanche, Professor and Director, Ted Rogers School of Hospitality and Tourism Management, Toronto Metropolitan UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1577012021-03-29T11:54:57Z2021-03-29T11:54:57ZNofap: can giving up masturbation really boost men’s testosterone levels? An expert’s view<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/392256/original/file-20210329-19-1rxi32a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=297%2C0%2C7051%2C4891&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Testosterone levels can be affected by range of causes.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/bodybuilder-working-out-bumbbells-weights-gym-374999587">ESB Basic/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-trending-40382766">Nofap</a> is a growing online movement devoted to giving up masturbation and even sex for extended periods – typically around 90 days. Starting as a spin-off from a 2011 thread on <a href="https://www.reddit.com">Reddit</a>, the organisation NoFap.com <a href="https://nofap.com/">describes itself</a> as a community-centred sexual health platform, designed to help people overcome porn addiction and compulsive sexual behaviour. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcthree/article/fa4340d8-3f9e-4b4e-9730-d582cfb1c7e5">claimed benefits</a>, however, have now extended the reach of nofap beyond the realms of porn addiction recovery and into mainstream health and lifestyle initiatives. Advocates of nofap are heralding an array of sexual, physical and mental improvements – including increased testosterone levels. But is there any evidence to back this up?</p>
<p>There are many movements that are similar to nofap, such as <a href="https://www.healthline.com/health/healthy-sex/semen-retention">semen retention</a>, and they all appear to be predominantly aimed at and practised by straight men, with only smaller pockets of <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2019/sep/09/whats-causing-women-to-join-the-nofap-movement">women</a> and LGBTQIA+ people participating. It has <a href="https://www.vice.com/en/article/7xywwb/let-this-be-the-last-no-nut-november-nofap-meme-explained">also been</a> taken up by certain far-right and misogynist groups, such as <a href="https://theconversation.com/designating-the-proud-boys-a-terrorist-organization-wont-stop-hate-fuelled-violence-154709">Proud Boys</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/391189/original/file-20210323-15-d4u7c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/391189/original/file-20210323-15-d4u7c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=391&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/391189/original/file-20210323-15-d4u7c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=391&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/391189/original/file-20210323-15-d4u7c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=391&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/391189/original/file-20210323-15-d4u7c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=491&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/391189/original/file-20210323-15-d4u7c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=491&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/391189/original/file-20210323-15-d4u7c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=491&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">NoFap table.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Daniel Kelly</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Testosterone in men does indeed have profound effects on mood, being demonstrated to <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24047633/">improve depression</a>, <a href="https://howtoliveyounger.com/the-connection-between-testosterone-and-motivation/">happiness and motivation</a>. It is clearly linked to muscle growth and physical performance (that’s why it is <a href="https://theconversation.com/caster-semenya-how-much-testosterone-is-too-much-for-a-female-athlete-116391">a banned</a> supplementary substance in most sporting events). And many aspects of male sexual function are reliant on testosterone. So why wouldn’t we connect the dots between nofap and testosterone?</p>
<h2>The actual evidence</h2>
<p>Well, the main reason is the evidence. Two studies keep popping up when evidence is quoted to support benefits of sexual abstinence as a means to increase testosterone. In the first one, ten men <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/11760788/">had their</a> testosterone levels measured twice (baseline) before masturbation and orgasm (several tests are more reliable than just one), and then in ten minute intervals after. </p>
<p>This was followed by a three-week period in which they were instructed to refrain from “any type of sexual activity”. After that period, the process was repeated. Testosterone was reported as being higher in the baseline measurements after abstinence.</p>
<p>Despite the conclusions of the research, the sample size of this study was tiny. And the increase in testosterone may have actually been due to the anticipation of sexual arousal in the second experiment after abstinence. What’s more, testosterone levels at the first baseline measurement were actually the same before and after abstinence, with the second measurement differing slightly. So without more data it is impossible to really say that abstinence increases testosterone at all.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/12659241/">second study</a> reported a 45% increase in testosterone levels after seven days of abstinence. But this was a temporary peak which then returned to the same levels as before, even with continued abstinence, and stayed that way. Such transient alterations in testosterone levels are unlikely to have any lasting effects on men’s health and may primarily serve as a regulator of the creation of new sperm.</p>
<p>A few studies, on the other hand, have shown either no effect of abstinence on testosterone or that testosterone levels were actually higher after masturbation or sex. Measuring testosterone before and directly after masturbation in 34 healthy young men found that <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/135817/">testosterone levels increased</a> after self stimulation. But any longer term effects were not checked. At best, the evidence linking masturbation with changes in testosterone levels is limited and with mixed conclusions.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Image of a test tube labelled " src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/391898/original/file-20210326-15-qmlso0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=9%2C37%2C3153%2C1911&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/391898/original/file-20210326-15-qmlso0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=370&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/391898/original/file-20210326-15-qmlso0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=370&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/391898/original/file-20210326-15-qmlso0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=370&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/391898/original/file-20210326-15-qmlso0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=465&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/391898/original/file-20210326-15-qmlso0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=465&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/391898/original/file-20210326-15-qmlso0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=465&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Psychological problems can cause a drop in testosterone.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/abnormal-low-testosterone-hormone-test-result-1137684032">Jarun Ontakrai/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Countering the argument for nofap is the well-documented benefits of sexual activity, including masturbation, on health. The release of endorphins during orgasm leads to positive feelings. Masturbation can help relieve built-up stress and assist relaxation, improve sleep, boost mood, release sexual tension and cramps and even allow a better understanding of sexual wants and needs. And in men there may even be some <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S2050052116000780?via%3Dihub">possible protection</a> against prostate cancer from regular ejaculation, although this relationship is not fully clear yet.</p>
<h2>Psychological reasons</h2>
<p>In fact, masturbation as such doesn’t appear to have any negative effects on sexual and general health, and particularly in relation to testosterone levels in men. The problem may lie in excessive masturbation and attitudes towards self pleasure.</p>
<p>Personal perceptions of masturbation can cause psychological effects that impact testosterone levels. A build-up of anxiety and depression can occur if someone has feelings of guilt following masturbation. This guilt could be based around feeling immoral, such as being unfaithful to a partner or having religious conflicts. A study <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7145784/">investigating the motivation</a> for abstinence found that the reason was mostly due to attitudes, specifically the perception of masturbation as unhealthy or wrong.</p>
<p>This stress from prolonged guilt, anxiety and depression can <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6318487/">cause decreases</a> in testosterone levels and in these situations, abstinence may relieve such feelings and could then theoretically lead to a testosterone increase. Maybe, then, the argument shouldn’t be about changing the tendency or frequency of masturbation, but more about improving understanding and attitudes towards sexual behaviour.</p>
<p>That said, abstaining from masturbation could help people with destructive porn addictions. Taking a break from pornography, masturbation, or even sex altogether for an extended period of time could help break the cycle, or reboot from porn addiction. Beyond this, though, health benefits of nofap are anecdotal and evidence to show abstinence even alters testosterone at all is simply not there.</p>
<p>So for anyone embarking on a period of “fapstinence” as a health fad, there is no apparent harm in trying and there might even be perceived improvements in certain aspects of life. But bear in mind that there is no reason to believe that nofap will meaningfully boost your testosterone levels and you may be missing out on the many benefits of healthy masturbation.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/157701/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Daniel Kelly does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A growing online movement believes that giving up masturbation can make us happier and boost our testosterone levels.Daniel Kelly, Senior Lecturer in Biochemistry, Sheffield Hallam UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1537052021-03-09T13:35:40Z2021-03-09T13:35:40ZCOVID-19 survivor’s guilt a growing issue as reality of loss settles in<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/383903/original/file-20210211-14-ie4dau.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=44%2C22%2C7304%2C4880&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Millions of Americans may wonder if they inadvertently passed COVID-19 to someone else.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/pensive-woman-in-front-of-the-window-royalty-free-image/1129697415?adppopup=true">franckreporter/E+ via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>People are eager to return to normal after a year of coronavirus, but is the U.S. there yet? <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/us/coronavirus-us-cases.html">Hardly</a>. The ongoing psychological and spiritual damage caused by the pandemic is rising, too. </p>
<p>Guilt and shame are <a href="https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.571828">two prevailing emotions</a> surrounding COVID-19.
This guilt stems in part from the fact that anyone could be a potential carrier of the virus – so anyone, then, could unwittingly pass it to another person. Guilt can also arise when a person looks at the national and global death tolls and <a href="https://www.heart.org/en/news/2021/02/04/surviving-covid-19-survivors-guilt">wonders how they were spared</a>. </p>
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.1037/tra0000742">Guilt also happens when</a> family members can’t visit loved ones undergoing treatment at a hospital, or when someone with COVID-19 survives but <a href="https://consumer.healthday.com/aha-news-surviving-covid-19-survivors-guilt-2650291047.html">reads about a infected stranger who died</a>. A particular type of response called <a href="https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/325578">survivor’s guilt</a> can occur when people lose loved ones due to a traumatic event, or when they themselves experienced the threat but survived it. </p>
<p>As <a href="https://med.jax.ufl.edu/directory/bio/1164/david-chesire/">a psychologist</a> and a doctor of <a href="https://med.jax.ufl.edu/directory/bio/1141/mark-mcintosh/">emergency medicine</a>, we have personal experience with patients suffering from survivor’s guilt as they watched loved ones succumb to COVID-19. And as the pandemic continues, we expect to see more. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A doctor and nurse tend to a patient in the hospital." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/380595/original/file-20210126-15-1b5xzyc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/380595/original/file-20210126-15-1b5xzyc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/380595/original/file-20210126-15-1b5xzyc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/380595/original/file-20210126-15-1b5xzyc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/380595/original/file-20210126-15-1b5xzyc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/380595/original/file-20210126-15-1b5xzyc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/380595/original/file-20210126-15-1b5xzyc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Determining precisely how someone got COVID-19 is difficult, if not impossible.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/doctors-caring-for-patient-in-emergency-care-unit-royalty-free-image/1217819947?adppopup=true">Westend61 via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Survivor’s guilt is complicated</h2>
<p>Survivor’s guilt can occur whether or not a person caused an event to occur. It can happen to a sole survivor of a plane crash who had nothing to do with the accident, or an intoxicated driver who crashed his car and killed his passenger. Either way, the person feels they were spared an event while others perished, and feelings of grief and anxiety result. Survivor’s guilt can affect <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/15325024.2018.1507965">up to 90% of survivors</a> of traumatic events. COVID-19 <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/06/world/europe/bergamo-italy-coronavirus-covid-19-ptsd.html">survivors in Bergamo, Italy</a>, one of the world’s hardest-hit towns, have experienced this on a widespread basis. Some people have reported a type of survivor guilt when they have <a href="https://www.health.com/condition/infectious-diseases/coronavirus/covid-survivors-guilt">been vaccinated</a>, with many wondering why they have been so fortunate. </p>
<p><a href="https://californiahealthline.org/news/while-los-angeles-county-sets-new-record-for-infections-california-leaders-behavior-sends-mixed-messages/">Conflicting messages</a> from the federal and various state and local governments haven’t helped. Because some leaders have suggested that COVID-19 is <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2020/11/20/anthony-fauci-covid-us-must-accept-how-dangerous-coronavirus-is-react/3778241001/">no worse than the flu</a>, millions of Americans did not wear masks. By some estimates, not wearing masks <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/23/health/covid-deaths.html">could have contributed to 130,000 deaths</a>.</p>
<p>Also, <a href="https://theconversation.com/can-people-spread-the-coronavirus-if-they-dont-have-symptoms-5-questions-answered-about-asymptomatic-covid-19-140531">a person can spread COVID-19</a> without knowing they have the disease. This uncertainty combined with loneliness might have led to social gatherings that weren’t the safest. Perhaps an elderly parent decides to risk illness <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/im-missing-it-all-grandparents-grieve-over-loss-of-visits-with-grandchildren/2020/05/29/0a9831c2-9fa6-11ea-b5c9-570a91917d8d_story.html">rather than spend the holiday alone</a>. Many parents, including our own, say they want to make the most out of the time they have right now; they cannot bank on being around next year. </p>
<p>In the world of palliative medicine, there is no shortage of examples of patients <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/im-missing-it-all-grandparents-grieve-over-loss-of-visits-with-grandchildren/2020/05/29/0a9831c2-9fa6-11ea-b5c9-570a91917d8d_story.html">choosing quality of life over quantity</a>, sometimes refusing lifesaving but invasive treatment so they can spend time engaged in activities they might not otherwise be able to enjoy. This is not unusual at any age – it’s not at all uncommon for people to make choices that have potential tremendous costs, from smoking to skydiving. </p>
<p>So is someone who inadvertently passed along COVID-19 at fault? For example, how do we cope with the guilt when we know we passed the virus on to a <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/i-gave-my-dad-covid-19-survivors-grapple-guilt-infecting-n1207921">family member</a>? Generally people don’t ascribe this kind of blame when they inadvertently pass the flu to someone who gets sick, or perhaps even dies. We do not see countless news stories assigning blame when someone with the common cold does not wear a mask at the grocery store. We believe that people should be forgiving of themselves should they accidentally transmit COVID-19. Self-forgiveness requires recognition we cannot control everything and that our motives were benign. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A sad woman, looking out the window." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/380596/original/file-20210126-17-1y1cwqx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/380596/original/file-20210126-17-1y1cwqx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/380596/original/file-20210126-17-1y1cwqx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/380596/original/file-20210126-17-1y1cwqx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/380596/original/file-20210126-17-1y1cwqx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/380596/original/file-20210126-17-1y1cwqx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/380596/original/file-20210126-17-1y1cwqx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Survivor’s guilt can lead to major depression.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/sad-woman-looking-out-of-the-window-royalty-free-image/916643676?adppopup=true">EMS-Forster Productions/DigitalVisio via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Dealing with survivor’s guilt</h2>
<p>Symptoms of survivor’s guilt include anxiety, depression, headache, nausea, sleeplessness and fatigue. It can lead to post-traumatic stress disorder. Managing survivor’s guilt is an individual process, and what works for one may not work for another. Interventions include deep breathing, meditation, relaxation, exercising, a healthy diet, journaling, adopting a hobby, getting a pet, watching comedies and reaching out – volunteering or engaging with family, friends and co-workers. For some, spirituality and faith are also important.</p>
<p>Nonreligious people may find comfort by connecting directly to nature, where life and death are part of a grand cycle, and nature itself may have a purpose that ordains when one person succumbs while another survives. </p>
<p>As people pass through the grieving process, healing comes by recognizing our interconnectedness to each other. But when the U.S. quarantined, many people lost that most basic and primal coping mechanism. Instead, Americans, sometimes alone, have had to explore existential truths that may have been painful, even devastating. Yet in many ways, the country has already prevailed. Through mourning our losses and suffering heartbreak, our medical, psychological and spiritual well-being remains a strength.</p>
<p>[<em>Get facts about coronavirus and the latest research.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/the-daily-3?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=coronavirus-facts">Sign up for The Conversation’s newsletter.</a>]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/153705/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>What if you passed COVID-19 to someone else? For those living with that guilt, the thought could be devastating.David Chesire, Associate Professor, College of Medicine, University of FloridaMark S. McIntosh, Associate Professor of Emergency Medicine, University of FloridaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1434572020-07-30T20:00:41Z2020-07-30T20:00:41ZIt’s OK to be OK: how to stop feeling ‘survivor guilt’ during COVID-19<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/350334/original/file-20200730-31-1mniilp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=33%2C33%2C7315%2C4869&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Everyone’s pandemic experience is unfolding differently. There’s no denying COVID-19 has been devastating for millions of people around the world. At the worst end of the spectrum are the millions of cases and hundreds of thousands of people who have died, as well as their grieving friends and families. </p>
<p>There are also likely millions <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/blog/up-front/2020/07/13/covid-19-job-and-income-loss-leading-to-more-hunger-and-financial-hardship/">suffering financial hardship</a> due to the pandemic, which in many cases will be affecting their mental health.</p>
<p>But at the other end of the spectrum are those who are not only doing well, but in some cases thriving. For some people, this can lead to a kind of “survivor guilt” – believing they’ve done something wrong by surviving and thriving during the pandemic.</p>
<h2>A new type of survivor guilt</h2>
<p>The term <a href="https://www.verywellmind.com/survivors-guilt-4688743">survivor guilt</a> is usually used to describe the emotional distress some people feel after surviving a traumatic event in which others have died, such as a natural disaster or terrorist attack.</p>
<p>It has been identified in military <a href="https://www.goodtherapy.org/learn-about-therapy/issues/veterans-mental-health-issues">veterans</a>, those who survived the <a href="https://news.illinoisstate.edu/2016/04/holocaust-survivors-guilt-spreads-generations/">Holocaust</a>, <a href="https://psychcentral.com/news/2019/07/26/9-11-near-miss-experiences-often-tied-to-survivor-guilt/148586.html">9/11 survivors</a>, and <a href="https://www.goodtherapy.org/learn-about-therapy/issues/first-responder-issues">emergency first responders</a>.</p>
<p>COVID-19 has certainly been a traumatic experience and has had a profound impact on mental health. <a href="https://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/health/health-problems/perfect-storm-is-brewing-as-australia-counts-cost-of-the-coronavirus-response/news-story/d4f20a3025224c7c942cb6e397dc047c">Around 1,000 people have died by suicide</a> in Australia since it began and modelling from the University of Sydney found suicide deaths could rise by <a href="https://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/health/health-problems/the-silent-death-toll-of-covid19-revealed-huge-25-per-cent-jump-in-suicides-each-year/news-story/b4154626a16c9cc25c3b79b7880041ef">25% annually</a> for the next five years.</p>
<p>During COVID-19 we have <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/videos/tv/2020/06/25/lead-kafanov-dnt-live-jake-tapper.cnn">witnessed</a> the conventional type of survivor guilt associated with surviving the coronavirus when hundreds of thousands haven’t.</p>
<p>But not everyone is struggling, and this has resulted in a new type of survivor guilt. This <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/guilt-is-powerful-for-those-doing-fine-in-the-lockdown-11590090101">emerging type of guilt</a> is characterised by not feeling “impacted enough” by the pandemic.</p>
<p>This type of survivor guilt can be seen in the workplace. The pandemic has forced many organisations to reduce staffing, causing some remaining employees to feel guilty, <a href="https://www.shrm.org/resourcesandtools/hr-topics/employee-relations/pages/pandemic-leaves-some-struggling-with-survivor-guilt-at-work.aspx">according to John Hackston</a>, head of thought leadership at the Myers-Briggs Co.</p>
<p>Survivor guilt can result <a href="https://www.heartcomms.com.au/emotions-bushfires-could-you-have-survivor-guilt/">in a range of emotions</a>, from shame to a sense of unworthiness or even anger. When emotions are not processed properly, they can impact our physical and mental health and cause depression, anxiety and physical illness.</p>
<h2>It’s OK to be happy during the pandemic</h2>
<p>While mental health advocates and support groups are right to remind people who are struggling that it’s “<a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/au/blog/flourish/202005/its-ok-not-be-ok-during-pandemic">OK not to be OK</a>” during this pandemic, it’s important to remember it’s “OK to be OK” too.</p>
<p>During a global public health crisis, no one should feel bad for being healthy or able to continue working. And if this pandemic has resulted in opportunities not just to survive but to thrive, we should celebrate those wins.</p>
<p>Cassie Mogilner Holmes, associate professor of behavioural decision-making at UCLA, says it’s not only OK, but essential, to enjoy one’s good fortune.</p>
<p>“It’s actually more important now than ever to focus on our personal emotional health,” <a href="https://connect.uclahealth.org/2020/05/08/its-important-and-ok-to-be-happy-during-the-pandemic/">says Holmes</a>.</p>
<p>Professor Kim Felmingham from the University of Melbourne says feeling guilty about being “OK” during these challenging times isn’t just a “perfectly normal” reaction — it’s part of our <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/triplej/programs/hack/survivors-guilt-covid19/12341320">evolutionary programming</a>. That’s because feeling survivor guilt means you are feeling empathy for others who have been less fortunate. In an evolutionary sense, empathy allows us to form close social bonds and connections with others.</p>
<p>“So give yourself a break, don’t beat yourself up if you are feeling guilty,” <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/triplej/programs/hack/survivors-guilt-covid19/12341320">says Felmingham</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A person enjoying working on their laptop at home" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/350333/original/file-20200730-33-16xg78t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/350333/original/file-20200730-33-16xg78t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/350333/original/file-20200730-33-16xg78t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/350333/original/file-20200730-33-16xg78t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/350333/original/file-20200730-33-16xg78t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/350333/original/file-20200730-33-16xg78t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/350333/original/file-20200730-33-16xg78t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">It’s OK to feel OK during the pandemic.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Unless we tackle survivor guilt, it could ultimately add to the mental health burden of COVID-19 by manifesting as future depression, anxiety or post-traumatic stress disorder.</p>
<p>For anyone struggling with these feelings, it’s important to remember this pandemic is not your fault. You didn’t do anything wrong. You are doing valuable work, either generating much-needed economic activity or helping your fellow citizens. You just happen to be lucky to be healthy, or to live in a place that’s relatively unaffected by the virus, or to work in an occupation that can withstand a recession triggered by a public health crisis.</p>
<h2>How to manage the guilt</h2>
<p>Guilt can sometimes be <a href="https://www.insider.com/negative-emotions-can-be-good-2018-12">turned into a positive thing</a>, as a sort of moral compass to help give back to the world.</p>
<p>If your mind is going down a negative path, perhaps you might like to start a “gratitude journal” to list the things for which you are thankful. It could help you settle into a more positive mindset, and allow you to ask yourself whom you can help right now, perhaps financially, physically with something like childcare, or mentally by letting someone unload some of their own stress on you with a simple chat.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/143457/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Erin Smith does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>For anyone struggling with survivor guilt, it’s important to remember this pandemic is not your fault. You did not do anything wrong.Erin Smith, Associate Professor in Disaster and Emergency Response, School of Medical and Health Sciences, Edith Cowan UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1386722020-05-26T12:18:15Z2020-05-26T12:18:15ZI’ve been following families in open adoptions for 15 years, observing adoptive parents’ struggles to share painful origin stories with kids<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/336591/original/file-20200520-194978-ryxmfx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=5%2C5%2C3828%2C2149&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Knowing the truth about one's origins is crucial to identity formation, according to adoption experts.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/parents-talking-with-son-on-bench-in-park-royalty-free-image/1130374456">Motortion/iStock via Getty Images Plus</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Adoption has changed dramatically in recent years. <a href="https://theconversation.com/international-adoptions-have-dropped-72-percent-since-2005-heres-why-91809">International adoptions have dropped dramatically</a> since 2005. Today, most adoptions are domestic, with the <a href="http://www.kinshipcenter.org/resources/blog/open-adoptions-are-a-national-trend-study-finds-that-95-of-us-infant-adoptions-have-openness.html">vast majority</a> being open adoptions, meaning there is some type of contact or exchange of information between birth families and adoptive families, before and sometimes after the adoption. </p>
<p>Research has shown that openness benefits all parties involved. <a href="https://www.childwelfare.gov/pubPDFs/bulletins_maintainrelationships.pdf">Birth parents</a> are reassured the child they placed is alive and well, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1097/NMC.0000000000000370">alleviating anxiety and guilt</a>. Adoptive parents are able to answer their children’s inevitable questions, and also experience <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0265407515611494">comfort and reassurance</a> knowing they were chosen by the birth family and can be in touch with them <a href="https://www.childwelfare.gov/pubPDF/bulletins_maintainrelationships.pdf">if genetic questions arise</a>. For children, openness eliminates the need to search for their birth parents. Access to birth parents <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/open-adoption-and-diverse-families-9780190692032">allows children to gain insight</a> and ask questions about their identity and roots. </p>
<p>I am a <a href="https://www.abbiegoldberg.com">psychologist</a> who studies open adoption. One topic <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/famp.12491">I research</a> is how adoptive parents grapple with the decision of whether and when to share difficult origin stories with their children.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/336571/original/file-20200520-152327-k7mb6a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/336571/original/file-20200520-152327-k7mb6a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/336571/original/file-20200520-152327-k7mb6a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/336571/original/file-20200520-152327-k7mb6a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/336571/original/file-20200520-152327-k7mb6a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/336571/original/file-20200520-152327-k7mb6a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/336571/original/file-20200520-152327-k7mb6a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/336571/original/file-20200520-152327-k7mb6a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Most babies adopted in the United States today were born here.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/loving-male-same-sex-couple-cuddling-baby-daughter-royalty-free-image/1177240987">monkeybusinessimages/iStock via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>What psychologists recommend</h2>
<p>Adoption experts advise a <a href="https://bpar.org/telling-truth-adopted-foster-child-book/">full, honest disclosure</a> of a child’s origin story. This recommendation is based on years of research documenting the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/1469-7610.00014">negative effects of secrecy</a> on adopted individuals. Psychologists emphasize the long-term benefits trust builds between parents and their children, as well as the need adopted individuals have to know the truth about their origins in order to <a href="https://www.nacac.org/resource/seven-core-issues-in-adoption-and-permanency/">fully understand themselves and have healthy and meaningful relationships</a>. This recommendation is firm, even in situations of rape or incest, birth parent substance abuse, incarceration or physical abuse.</p>
<p>Such discussions should be <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/open-adoption-and-diverse-families-9780190692032">developmentally staged</a>, meaning they should vary depending on the child’s age. For example, to a preschooler, parents might explain their birth mother was not healthy enough to care for them; to a teen, they might share their birth mother struggled with alcoholism.</p>
<p>All information should be shared with the child by the time they reach adolescence. Identity development begins in childhood but takes center stage in adolescence, when youth begin to ask key questions like “Who am I?” and “Who am I in relation to others?” For adopted teens, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1300/J145v01n01_02">identity development can be more complete</a> if it involves coming to terms with their conception. If adopted youth are lied to about their origins, the discovery of such lies can prompt feelings of betrayal and <a href="https://www.nacac.org/resource/seven-core-issues-in-adoption-and-permanency/">amplify the shame and guilt</a> that often result from secrecy about adoption in the first place. </p>
<h2>Easier said than done</h2>
<p>While the theory of how and when to tell difficult origin stories to adopted children is clear, my research has found the practice more murky. </p>
<p>Since 2005, I’ve been conducting a long-term study of adoptive families. I first interviewed the parents prior to adoptive placement and have interviewed them every few years since – most recently, when their children were between the ages of eight and 12. Eleven couples in my study adopted children who were reportedly conceived via rape or incest.</p>
<p>From the time they agreed to the adoptive placement, all of these 22 parents carefully considered how their children’s conception circumstances would affect their children and what, if anything, they would need to tell them. Parents worried about the stigmatizing aspects of their child’s origin story, with several emphasizing they would keep the circumstances of their children’s conception private, within their immediate family.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/336573/original/file-20200520-152344-wfwkwe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/336573/original/file-20200520-152344-wfwkwe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/336573/original/file-20200520-152344-wfwkwe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/336573/original/file-20200520-152344-wfwkwe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/336573/original/file-20200520-152344-wfwkwe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/336573/original/file-20200520-152344-wfwkwe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/336573/original/file-20200520-152344-wfwkwe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/336573/original/file-20200520-152344-wfwkwe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Honesty leads to trust.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/perfect-family-holding-hands-adopted-child-being-royalty-free-image/1004735032">Motortion/iStock via Getty Images Plus</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>When I last interviewed them, none of the parents had shared explicit information about their children’s conception details. A few had tentatively raised the topic, by saying things like, “I don’t think that your birth parents were in love.” Two-thirds said they had not shared because they had incomplete or questionable information. </p>
<p>For example, they said they had been told by the adoption agency their child was conceived through rape, but not by the birth mother herself – so how did they know? Some wondered if the birth mother had said it was stranger rape to protect an older boyfriend from being accused of statutory rape. While parents said they wanted to believe birth mothers, the possibility of an alternative narrative gave them pause to consider the potential risks of telling a story to their children that might not be true. It’s possible, also, some were questioning birth mothers’ stories because they wish to believe a less stigmatizing version, enabling them to not have to tell it. </p>
<p>The desire to preserve children’s innocence, combined with uncertainty about birth mothers’ accounts, were described as key reasons for ongoing silence around their children’s origins. All study parents said they were uncertain about how they would share this information down the road. One-third had consulted or intended to consult with adoption therapists to plan the telling. Parents with ongoing birth mother contact described their intention to verify the story and plan its telling with her. </p>
<p>Adoptive parents in my study describe a commitment to openness, while also struggling with a lack of guidance around how and when to disclose difficult conception details. Indeed, adoptive parents generally get a lot of information and guidance before they adopt, but do not get a lot of post-adoption counseling <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.childyouth.2018.06.017">unless they seek it out</a>. </p>
<p>The parents in my study are hesitating to disclose, but are also worried about waiting too long and risking feelings of betrayal, such as, “Why did you lie to me?” Adoptive parents in this situation should consult with therapists <a href="https://adoptionsupport.org/member-types/adoption-competent-professionals/">who have training in adoption issues</a> as they navigate these uncertain waters, with the knowledge that children deserve the truth about their own stories – even when that truth is difficult.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/138672/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Abbie E. Goldberg does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Experts recommend adopted children be told about their origins, no matter how difficult the circumstances, but doing so is tricky for adoptive parents.Abbie E. Goldberg, Professor of Psychology, Clark UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1318262020-02-24T13:48:10Z2020-02-24T13:48:10ZEating disorders are about emotional pain – not food<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/316672/original/file-20200221-92526-1ecmwy2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=211%2C86%2C4997%2C3378&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Taylor Swift, one of millions of Americans who has struggled with an eating disorder.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/2020-Sundance-Film-Festival-Taylor-Swift-Mi-/d77dcbd562e847daaadb3d3c7b380bbb/5/0">AP Images/Invision/Charles Sykes</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>In her <a href="https://variety.com/2020/music/news/taylor-swift-eating-disorder-netflix-documentary-miss-americana-1203478047/">documentary “Miss Americana,</a>” music icon Taylor Swift disclosed her history of eating disorders. Her revelation underscores the fact these disorders do not discriminate. According to the advocacy and awareness organization <a href="http://eatingdisorderscoalition.org.s208556.gridserver.com/couch/uploads/file/fact-sheet_2016.pdf">Eating Disorders Coalition</a>, they strike all genders, races, ethnicities and socioeconomic backgrounds.</p>
<p>Despite their prevalence – the problem is worldwide – <a href="https://www.nationaleatingdisorders.org/toolkit/parent-toolkit/eating-disorder-myths">myths about eating disorders</a> abound. Such as that they are a choice. They are not. Or they’re not a big deal. They are. Or that a person with an eating disorder is always severely underweight. Not always. </p>
<p>As a <a href="http://www.keystonepsychotherapy.com/">licensed psychologist</a> and psychology professor, I find it’s common for my clients and students to say “A little food helps me with my anxiety” or “I’m not thin enough to have an eating disorder.” Such beliefs often prevent people from recognizing they have a problem. More is involved in an eating disorder than food, or body image. Someone gripped by one is attempting to regulate some very difficult and complicated emotions.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/316673/original/file-20200221-92493-6dnu4c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/316673/original/file-20200221-92493-6dnu4c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/316673/original/file-20200221-92493-6dnu4c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/316673/original/file-20200221-92493-6dnu4c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/316673/original/file-20200221-92493-6dnu4c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/316673/original/file-20200221-92493-6dnu4c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/316673/original/file-20200221-92493-6dnu4c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">An eating disorder is not about managing weight; it’s about managing emotions.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/young-woman-pinching-her-waist-royalty-free-image/530019617?adppopup=true">Getty Images / PhotoStock-Israel</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>What is an eating disorder?</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.apa.org/helpcenter/eating">Eating disorders</a> fall into three basic categories: disorders of restriction, or anorexia; bingeing, known medically as binge eating disorder; and bingeing followed by compensation – such as self-induced vomiting – which is called bulimia. </p>
<p>Unpacked further: Restriction means limiting calories so much that weight loss is more than expected for a given height and weight. This does not necessarily mean the person will appear emaciated. Someone who was at the 90th percentile for weight, for example, could still be considered anorexic if they reduced their weight to the 70th percentile. </p>
<p>Bingeing is more than simply overeating. It’s out-of-control eating, leading to extreme feelings of fullness and guilt, typically within a couple of hours after a meal. By bingeing, a person can check out of life circumstances to focus only on food. </p>
<p>With <a href="https://www.nationaleatingdisorders.org/learn/by-eating-disorder/bulimia">bulimia</a>, a binge is followed by an action to compensate for the calories consumed. Purging is one of them, but there are others, including exercise, particularly when it’s taken to an extreme. Although exercise is often overlooked as a form of compensation, a person <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31894540">addicted to it</a> has more than three-and-a-half times the likelihood to be diagnosed with an eating disorder than a person a without one.</p>
<p>It should be emphasized that not all of these disorders always result in weight loss. Those with binge eating disorder and bulimia may be at or above expected weight.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/316674/original/file-20200221-92558-15fdem7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/316674/original/file-20200221-92558-15fdem7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/316674/original/file-20200221-92558-15fdem7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/316674/original/file-20200221-92558-15fdem7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/316674/original/file-20200221-92558-15fdem7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/316674/original/file-20200221-92558-15fdem7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/316674/original/file-20200221-92558-15fdem7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">With an eating disorder, changing meal patterns isn’t enough.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/young-woman-having-a-midnight-snack-royalty-free-image/516595532?adppopup=true">Getty Images / Kontrec</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>The root of an eating disorder</h2>
<p>Eating disorders aren’t about managing weight. Rather, they’re a way to manage emotions. When my clients describe what it’s like to restrict themselves from food, they often talk of being “empty” and feeling “numb” to the world.</p>
<p>Take someone dealing with a trifecta of guilt, shame and embarrassment. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eatbeh.2006.04.001">Bingeing</a> is exceedingly effective at burying these emotions. So is <a href="https://rdcu.be/b1RRU">compensation</a>, a tool to give the sufferer a break from the emotional turmoil. The relief they receive is a reinforcer, and it’s extraordinarily powerful. Purging, overeating, compensating – it all feels good. Very quickly, the pattern is repeated.</p>
<h2>Some answers</h2>
<p>Simply changing eating patterns won’t work. Instead, sufferers must first identify the feelings they’re experiencing. Then comes a search for better strategies to deal with those feelings. In the interim, nothing feels as good as the eating disorder. But slowly, as healthy behaviors take over, they become more reinforcing than the disorder.</p>
<p>With Feb. 24 marking the beginning of <a href="https://www.nationaleatingdisorders.org/get-involved/nedawareness">National Eating Disorders Awareness Week</a>, there’s one thing you need to remember if you know someone with an eating disorder. They are experiencing significant emotional pain; the eating disorder is an attempt to communicate that pain. If food or exercise appears to be running the life of a family member, friend or colleague, you can help by focusing on them and their lived experience – and not exclusively on the food. </p>
<p>[<em>Get the best of The Conversation, every weekend.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/weekly-highlights-61?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=weeklybest">Sign up for our weekly newsletter</a>.]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/131826/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michele Patterson Ford does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>As National Eating Disorders Awareness Week is observed Feb. 24-March 1, here are some things to consider.Michele Patterson Ford, Lecturer in Psychology, Dickinson CollegeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1017132018-09-10T16:47:43Z2018-09-10T16:47:43ZWhen anti-waste campaigns backfire<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/234669/original/file-20180903-41717-1917dem.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C98%2C2272%2C1601&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Research indicates that up to a third of all food is wasted -- but also shows that anti-waste campaigns frequently backfire. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/spine/558333048/in/photolist-RkAXS-pifBAW-nvQFWP-74fSCK-n9sG3H-fpyCQ2-KJxfg9-RnBai-n3Z1yA-5V5fra-f8JoHP-9H9WcQ-cTu8fo-8qjtiH-4kGysi-8MEVsz-5G7vF1-oQ6hhx-dM5bjc-RCopc-qBYoij-7g1eTy-q7EifT-71LZLM-qBYhp5-9V9i74-pQihrD-5zj5tA-4WTJQ6-5TYXK8-5G3dVF-7CB5tU-mZFVB-82PbpL-4PHvcW-cWR3yW-pQeVyK-paVvVF-5zeTQP-4WY21b-2y5qPJ-iWABhZ-dMaKuA-dMaKfQ-sRiex5-FaKgnU-b32BS2-NXknVP-KSVgw5-NCvxSf">Rick/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Waste has become a serious problem in Western societies. About a third of the food produced in countries such as the [United Kingdom](http://foodawarecic.org.uk/stats-2/](http://foodawarecic.org.uk/stats-2/), <a href="http://www.environment.gov.au/protection/national-waste-policy">Australia</a> and the <a href="https://www.nrdc.org/resources/wasted-how-america-losing-40-percent-its-food-farm-fork-landfill">United States</a> is wasted. About 40% is <a href="http://www.fao.org/docrep/014/mb060e/mb060e02.pdf">wasted by consumers</a>, who buy too much, forget what’s in their refrigerator or cupboards, or throw away food that is past its expiration date yet perfectly edible.</p>
<p>Immense amounts of food is discarded by stores or restaurants because they weren’t sold before the official selling date, or for esthetic reasons – vegetables or fruit that have unusual shapes or are too big or too small, or food packages that are distorted… Waste also occurs with electronic goods that are discarded <a href="http://tcocertified.com/news/global-e-waste-reaches-record-high-says-new-un-report/">even though they work just fine</a> and millions of tons of usable paper that are <a href="http://www.theworldcounts.com/stories/Paper-Waste-Facts">thrown away every year</a>.</p>
<h2>Blaming consumers doesn’t work</h2>
<p>To reduce waste, most governments run communication campaigns. Many try to make consumers feel guilty by telling them how much people like them waste (food, paper, water…). For instance, campaigns in the UK state that <a href="https://www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/530298924843889997/">“Consumers in rich countries waste almost as much food as the entire food production of sub-Saharan Africa”</a>, or that <a href="https://duniaibrahim.wordpress.com/2014/07/24/your-food-isnt-your-waste-1/">“50% of the total amount of food that is thrown away comes from the homes”</a>. In the United States, consumers are told that <a href="http://www.allianceforwaterefficiency.org/Never-Waste.aspx">“Letting the water run while you shave wastes 32 of these”</a> accompanied by the image of a bottle of water. The idea is that once people realise how much they waste, they will stop.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, research has shown that when people are told that people like them misbehave, this makes them act worse, not better. In a <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0148296318301012">June 2018 study</a>, we confirm this backfiring effect in a series of studies on waste: indeed, people are ready to waste even more (and do so), when they are told that people like them waste food or paper. So the messages of the type “consumers waste a lot” backfire and lead to more waste.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/234670/original/file-20180903-41723-137qpjm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/234670/original/file-20180903-41723-137qpjm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/234670/original/file-20180903-41723-137qpjm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/234670/original/file-20180903-41723-137qpjm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/234670/original/file-20180903-41723-137qpjm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=533&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/234670/original/file-20180903-41723-137qpjm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=533&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/234670/original/file-20180903-41723-137qpjm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=533&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Ad for an anti-waste campaign.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://groupisd.com/food-waste-campaign-finds-great-support-from-conscientious-brands/">ISD Global</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>There are better ways</h2>
<p>The objective of our study was to develop and test anti-waste messages that would not backfire. We followed two ideas. First, we looked at what happens when instead of blaming consumers, stores or restaurants take responsibility for waste and implicitly ask consumers for help. So we tried messages of the type “stores waste a lot”, “restaurants waste lots of food”, “schools waste lots of paper”. We found that these messages worked much better: consumers wasted less after being exposed to these messages. Even better, the image of the stores or restaurants using these messages improved. Consumers were ready to help the stores and saw them more favorably.</p>
<p>The second idea was to reassure people that avoiding waste was easy. Indeed, we found that backfiring effects of anti-waste messages happened because of difficulty. When consumer read that everyone wastes a lot, they think that it must be difficult to cut waste – so they don’t even try. We decided to test whether taking this concern away would work. We used the classic message, “consumers waste a lot”, but added a new tag: “it is easy to stop wasting”. This worked well: people who saw this additional tag wasted less.</p>
<p>These are encouraging results, because they show that with a few word changes, anti-waste campaigns could be improved so that they achieve their objective: reduce consumer waste.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/101713/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Corinne Faure receives funding from the European Commission for research on adoption of energy efficient technologies. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Birau Mia ne travaille pas, ne conseille pas, ne possède pas de parts, ne reçoit pas de fonds d'une organisation qui pourrait tirer profit de cet article, et n'a déclaré aucune autre affiliation que son organisme de recherche.</span></em></p>Research shows that campaigns that try to make consumers feel guilty about the amount they waste often make things worse, not better. A new study poins the way to more effective anti-waste campaigns.Corinne Faure, Professor of Marketing, Grenoble École de Management (GEM)Birau Mia, Enseignant chercheur, ESDESLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/892572018-05-24T07:16:39Z2018-05-24T07:16:39ZHow remorse alone can sometimes change the past for those who have been wronged<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/220099/original/file-20180523-51141-1e47fho.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Remorse and contrition have a role that seems natural, but the justice system makes it difficult to apply.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/ronmacphotos/8704611597">ronmacphotos</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Remorse is one of the most significant and least understood influences on the length of the sentence imposed by a criminal court. A <a href="https://www.sentencingcouncil.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/CCSS-Annual-2013.pdf">survey of Crown Courts</a> in England and Wales found that remorse was the single most common mitigating factor, mentioned in more than 20% of all cases as a reason why a sentence was being reduced, and is identified as an important consideration in formal <a href="https://www.sentencingcouncil.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/web_seriousness_guideline.pdf">sentencing guidelines</a>. </p>
<p>Even if remorse does not always lead to a lighter sentence, a lack of remorse will often be mentioned by a sentencing judge – and so picked up in newspaper reports - and will almost always lead to a weightier punishment. In a <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-sussex-43989357">recent case</a>, the judge remarked in passing sentence: “I have watched you closely during this trial and you have shown no emotion and little remorse other than for your own situation.” In <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-stoke-staffordshire-44214211">another case</a>, the judge remarked that the defendant’s lack of remorse and attempt to blame others was “an aggravating feature”.</p>
<p>It can be very hard to tell whether remorse is genuine or simply self-serving, expressed just in the hope of a lighter punishment. Sincerity can be hard enough to assess in our ordinary exchanges, but in the formal processes of criminal justice it is especially difficult. </p>
<p>While most of us think we can tell when remorse is genuine, there is <a href="http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1754073915601222">little evidence that we can evaluate remorse accurately</a> on the basis of facial expressions or other non-verbal indications. Such judgements are vulnerable to emotional, cultural and social biases. And at court, remorse is articulated not by the offender in person, but by their legal advocate, usually in carefully wrought, familiar, often over-polished expressions. Nor is an apology generally made directly to the victim, who may not even be present.</p>
<h2>Can remorse change the past?</h2>
<p>But why does remorse weigh with us so heavily? Remorse cannot change the past. Nor does remorse, however sincere, guarantee better behaviour in the future. Plenty of people profess remorse (and not only in court), but go on to do the same thing, or worse. So if remorse doesn’t matter, it’s not clear why its absence should make a difference. </p>
<p>When offenders express remorse (or when lawyers do so on their behalf), we may worry that they are insincere. But we should also be troubled about those people who may feel remorse, but are unable or unwilling to express it, often for complex personal reasons. There are those who are believed to be incapable of remorse, said to be the mark of a psychopath. So is it just to impose additional punishment on someone for a lack of remorse if this is an emotion that they are incapable of feeling?</p>
<p>Perhaps remorse registers strongly with us because we see it as fitting and proper. As we grow up, we are encouraged to think that when we have done wrong we should feel bad about it. There should be an element of self-reproach, some wish to make amends and a commitment to do better in future. We are taught that we should not keep these feelings to ourselves, but express them – typically in the form of an apology. We tend to think that this is simply the right thing to do, and that without it, anger and resentment are unlikely to be soothed. </p>
<p>The power a good apology has to restore to the victim the dignity and respect that the wrongdoing violated must not be underestimated. This has a significance beyond the court: we have all given and received apologies, and recognise the value of such expressions. But the process of criminal justice blocks many of these spontaneous means of achieving resolution for wrongdoing: there is rarely any opportunity to apologise in person, and in serious cases where people are imprisoned, there is hardly ever a chance to make amends.</p>
<p>Past actions and events persist most significantly in the hearts, minds and memories of those most affected by the incident. And memory is never a process of the mere retrieval of data, but an active matter of construction, reconstruction and interpretation, always influenced by the concerns and interests of the present. To be offered an apology is an experience that transforms the memory of the original offence; an act apologised for differs in this respect from one that has not. In this way, perhaps, remorse can sometimes change the past after all.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/89257/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Robert Canton does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Remorse is a vital, but often overlooked and underused aspect of justice, for both the victim and the offender.Robert Canton, Professor in Community and Criminal Justice, De Montfort UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/847602017-10-10T22:46:56Z2017-10-10T22:46:56ZHow parents can conquer fear and guilt to help kids with eating disorders<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/189255/original/file-20171006-25784-1xpe0bg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">New research shows that even previously obstructive parents can be coached into providing vital support for their children with eating disorders.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Lydia is seriously underweight and suffering from medical complications from an eating disorder. She is in hospital. Her treatment team recruits her mom to help Lydia gain weight through meal support. Lydia and her mom sit down for their first meal together. </p>
<p>Halfway through the meal, mom anxiously takes the dinner roll from her daughter’s tray and hides it in her purse. She tells her daughter: “You can skip the bread today. One step at a time.” </p>
<p>Is Lydia’s mom unmotivated to support her daughter’s recovery? Is she uncaring? Or does she just not get it?</p>
<p>In the 10 years I’ve been working as a psychologist in the field of eating disorders, I have encountered all too many variations of the scenario described above. Using the wrong lens, we could conclude that mom is just not going to cut it as a recovery ally. Actually, what our research shows is that <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10640266.2015.1133210">underlying these problematic patterns of support are deep fears</a>. </p>
<p>And not just any fears. Parents like Lydia’s mom fear that if they do the wrong thing, or if their child is pushed too hard and too fast with recovery, that they will experience too much distress. That this will catapult them into depression, self-harm behaviours or every parent’s nightmare — suicide. More often than not, and consciously or not, these parents feel stuck between a rock and a hard place. </p>
<p>Our research also shows that with some targeted support, many parents can transform their fears and associated behaviours to play a very positive role in the treatment of their child’s eating disorder — even if at first, it doesn’t seem so.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/189623/original/file-20171010-17715-a1b45z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/189623/original/file-20171010-17715-a1b45z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/189623/original/file-20171010-17715-a1b45z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/189623/original/file-20171010-17715-a1b45z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/189623/original/file-20171010-17715-a1b45z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/189623/original/file-20171010-17715-a1b45z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/189623/original/file-20171010-17715-a1b45z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The research demonstrates that parents can support their kids to recovery - from childhood through adulthood.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Struggles with fear and self-blame</h2>
<p>Eating disorders are associated with <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11920-012-0282-y">high rates of illness and premature death</a>. They seriously <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0272735810001303">impair one’s quality of life</a> and are considered <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3879222/">very difficult to treat</a>. Although parents are regarded as <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/eat.20751/full">important agents of healing when the patient is a child or adolescent</a>, this is not necessarily the norm when the individual with the eating disorder is over the age of 18 or when parents are thought to be obstructive, as in Lydia’s case above. </p>
<p>In fact, when parents are critical or enabling of their loved one’s symptoms, it isn’t uncommon for them to be kept on the outskirts of the recovery process, if they’re involved at all. </p>
<p>Our research shows that a parent’s fear for their loved one’s safety can create obstructive behaviours. So can feelings of self-blame. In this field of research and clinical practise, we now know with confidence that parents do not cause eating disorders. <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/09638230500347889">Family patterns can play a role, yes,</a> but so can <a href="https://books.google.ca/books?hl=en&lr=&id=5aSXQGSX_7QC&oi=fnd&pg=PA59&dq=Jacobi,+C.+%26+Fittig,+E.+(2010).+Psychosocial+risk+factors+for+eating+disorders.+&ots=JBzH2TN7Fb&sig=X5KTomnhoiyeg5hPj1EdqAkZIsk#v=onepage&q&f=false">the influence of genetics, the media, peers and many other factors </a>we are just now beginning to uncover. And then there are the inter-relationships among these different variables. It is complicated to say the least. </p>
<p>Regardless, most parents still carry within them a story of self-blame for their loved one’s illness. Their neighbours, friends and family members may too. Ask yourself this question: If you thought you were responsible — even a little bit — for your child’s illness, would you not hesitate to be involved? Just in case? Another rock and a hard place. </p>
<h2>All parents can be recovery coaches</h2>
<p>And so what to do? Along with a colleague, I developed <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/cpp.1933/full">Emotion-Focused Family Therapy</a> — a treatment model designed to help parents support their child’s physical and emotional recovery from an eating disorder. Trained clinicians equip parents with concrete strategies to respond to their child’s behaviours and emotions, including outbursts, feelings of despair, even total silence, and in particular when these interfere with meals. </p>
<p>When those feelings of fear and self-blame do take hold of the parent, and they undoubtedly do at some point throughout the recovery journey, the EFFT clinician brings in specific techniques to help parents to move through these “emotional blocks.” They then help them get back on track to supporting their loved one in a good way. </p>
<p>We recently tested this process during a brief intervention with parents who have children with an eating disorder. More than 100 parents from across Canada <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/14779757.2017.1330703">attended a two-day caregiver workshop</a> without their loved one present. They were taught to support their child with meals and with the emotional pain underlying the eating disorder, including healing their family relationships if necessary. They were also supported to move through their fears and self-blame. </p>
<p>Sure enough, participation in the workshop led to a decrease in these feelings. This then led to an increase in the parents’ belief in their role as their children’s recovery coaches. Most importantly, they also expressed willingness to go home and practise all that they had learned, and with a newfound confidence. We believe this is great news for clients and families and even for the clinicians who support them.</p>
<p>In fact, it offers more proof that parents are doing the best they can with what they have, and that they need — no, deserve — professional support when their emotions take over, a very normal experience when faced with a life-threatening illness.</p>
<h2>Neurologically wired for life</h2>
<p>Parents and children are neurologically wired, and for life. This supports the idea that we should be involving parents more, not less. No matter if the child is 14 or 40, and no matter if the parent has made mistakes in the past or the relationship is strained. </p>
<p>In fact, when tensions are high in the family, recovery can be more challenging for the individual with the eating disorder — a good reason to work with all involved. </p>
<p>It also means though that if parents can be supported to act as their child’s recovery coach, their efforts — even if on a much smaller scale and imperfect — will be far more powerful than any therapist. And that’s a great reason to work with all involved.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/84760/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Adele Lafrance does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A new psychological intervention can help any parents - even those crippled by fear and self-blame - to become powerful recovery coaches to children with eating disorders.Adele Lafrance, Associate Professor of Psychology, Laurentian UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/779312017-06-06T00:24:55Z2017-06-06T00:24:55ZWe use big data to sentence criminals. But can the algorithms really tell us what we need to know?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/171182/original/file-20170526-6389-1djjw9w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Use of data-driven risk assessments in sentencing may be heard by the Supreme Court.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/kneoh/14931652922/in/photolist-oKsCcL-7GomNn-8yTEo9-7yeMCw-aprwiN-9MVX4J-bMGwZ-bMFBR-7vzYNY-e4cAeq-5nCPgi-bMG7i-xx9XSo-bMFpa-bMGvK-bMbn94-7bo3eY-7z3WDx-oXP3gZ-6qCxCW-7GskFu-5ApJy6-ahi5G4-7KXtxw-DtvK-MLJg-MLJp-GDRLvC-HwyJuy-BNNc3-4naggU-9PURU9-9fY6o-4JUjjb-ahhVgM-6qCxTy-ahi7Ck-5oPmk7-6qCxFj-yZdd-bMJqo-bMJyb-5oPmrq-yY4z-yXK1-6qynWa-6qynUe-d7CC5-9sMTg8-p9xYAF">Karen Neoh/flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>In 2013, a man named Eric L. Loomis was sentenced for eluding police and driving a car without the owner’s consent. </p>
<p>When the judge weighed Loomis’ sentence, he considered an array of evidence, including the results of an automated risk assessment tool called <a href="http://www.equivant.com/solutions/inmate-classification">COMPAS</a>. Loomis’ COMPAS score indicated he was at a “high risk” of committing new crimes. Considering this prediction, the judge sentenced him to seven years. </p>
<p>Loomis challenged his sentence, arguing it was <a href="http://www.scotusblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/16-6387-cert-petition.pdf">unfair to use the data-driven score against him</a>. The U.S. Supreme Court now must consider whether to hear <a href="http://www.scotusblog.com/case-files/cases/loomis-v-wisconsin/">his case</a> – and perhaps settle a nationwide debate over whether it’s appropriate for any court to use these tools when sentencing criminals. </p>
<p>Today, judges across the U.S. use <a href="https://epic.org/algorithmic-transparency/crim-justice/">risk assessment tools like COMPAS in sentencing decisions</a>. In at least 10 states, these tools are a formal part of the sentencing process. Elsewhere, judges informally refer to them for <a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/Delivery.cfm/SSRN_ID2961288_code789716.pdf?abstractid=2961288&mirid=1">guidance</a>. </p>
<p>I have studied the legal and scientific bases for risk assessments. The more I investigate the tools, the more my caution about them grows. </p>
<p>The scientific reality is that these risk assessment tools cannot do what advocates claim. The algorithms cannot actually make predictions about future risk for the individual defendants being sentenced. </p>
<h2>The basics of risk assessment</h2>
<p>Judging an individual defendant’s future risk has long been a fundamental part of the sentencing process. Most often, these judgments are made on the basis of some gut instinct. </p>
<p>Automated risk assessment is seen as a way to <a href="http://www.pewtrusts.org/en/research-and-analysis/issue-briefs/2011/09/20/riskneeds-assessment-101-science-reveals-new-tools-to-manage-offenders">standardize the process</a>. Proponents of these tools, such as the nonprofit National Center for State Courts, believe that they <a href="http://www.ncsc.org/Services-and-Experts/%7E/media/Files/PDF/Services%20and%20Experts/Areas%20of%20expertise/Sentencing%20Probation/RNA%20Guide%20Final.ashx">offer a uniform and logical way to determine risk</a>. Others laud the tools for using big data.</p>
<p>The basic idea is that these tools can help incapacitate defendants most likely to commit more crimes. At the same time, it may be <a href="https://www.ncjrs.gov/works/chapter9.htm">more cost-effective to release lower-risk offenders</a>. </p>
<p>All states use risk assessments at one or more stages of the criminal justice process – from arrest to post-prison supervision. There are now <a href="https://csgjusticecenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/Risk-Assessment-Instruments-Validated-and-Implemented-in-Correctional-Settings-in-the-United-States.pdf">dozens of tools</a> available. Each uses its own more or less complicated algorithm to predict whether someone will reoffend. </p>
<p>Developers of risk assessment tools usually follow a common scientific method. They analyze historical data on the recidivism rates of samples of known criminals. This helps determine which factors are statistically related to recidivism. Characteristics commonly associated with reoffending include a person’s age at first offense, whether the person has a violent past and the stability of the person’s family. </p>
<p>The most important predictors are incorporated into a mathematical model. Then, developers create a statistical algorithm that weighs stronger predictors more heavily than weaker ones. </p>
<p>Criminal history, for instance, is consistently one of the strongest predictors of future crime. Thus, <a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/Delivery.cfm/SSRN_ID2555878_code827096.pdf?abstractid=2555878&mirid=1">criminal history tends to be heavily weighted</a>. </p>
<p>The tool typically divides results into different categories, such as low, moderate or high risk. To a decision-maker, these risk bins offer an appealing way to differentiate offenders. In sentencing, this can mean a more severe punishment for those who seem to pose a higher risk of reoffending. But things are not as rosy as they may appear. </p>
<h2>Individualizing punishment</h2>
<p>In the Loomis case, the state of Wisconsin claims that its data-driven result is <a href="https://epic.org/algorithmic-transparency/crim-justice/Wisc-Brief.pdf">individualized to Loomis</a>. But it is not. </p>
<p>Algorithms such as COMPAS cannot make predictions about individual defendants, because data-driven risk tools are based on group statistics. This creates an issue that academics sometimes call the “group-to-individual” or <a href="http://repository.uchastings.edu/faculty_scholarship/1036">G2i problem</a>. </p>
<p>Scientists study groups. But the law sentences the individual. Consider the disconnect between science and the law here. </p>
<p>The algorithms in risk assessment tools commonly assign specific points to different factors. The points are totaled. The total is then often translated to a risk bin, such as low or high risk. Typically, more points means a higher risk of recidivism.</p>
<p>Say a score of 6 points out of 10 on a certain tool is considered “high risk.” In the historical groups studied, perhaps 50 percent of people with a score of 6 points did reoffend. </p>
<p>Thus, one might be inclined to think that a new offender who also scores 6 points is at a 50 percent risk of reoffending. But that would be incorrect. </p>
<p>It may be the case that half of those with a score of 6 in the historical groups studied would later reoffend. However, the tool is unable to select which of the offenders with 6 points will reoffend and which will go on to lead productive lives.</p>
<p>The studies of factors associated with reoffending are not causation studies. They can tell only which factors are correlated with new crimes. Individuals retain some measure of free will to decide to break the law again, or not. </p>
<p>These issues may explain why <a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/Delivery.cfm/SSRN_ID2555867_code827096.pdf?abstractid=2506397&type=2">risk tools often have significant false positive rates</a>. The predictions made by the most popular risk tools for violence and sex offending have been shown to get it wrong for some groups over <a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/Delivery.cfm/SSRN_ID2416918_code827096.pdf?abstractid=2416918&type=2">50 percent</a> of the time. </p>
<p>A ProPublica investigation found that COMPAS, the tool used in Loomis’ case, is burdened by <a href="https://www.propublica.org/article/how-we-analyzed-the-compas-recidivism-algorithm">large error rates</a>. For example, COMPAS failed to predict reoffending in one study at a 37 percent rate. The company that makes COMPAS <a href="https://www.propublica.org/article/technical-response-to-northpointe">has disputed</a> the study’s methodology.</p>
<h1>Deciding on Loomis</h1>
<p>Unfortunately, in criminal justice, misinterpretations of risk assessment tools are pervasive.</p>
<p>Based on my analysis, I believe these tools cannot, scientifically or practically, provide individualized assessments. This is true no matter how complicated the underlying algorithms. </p>
<p><a href="http://www.northpointeinc.com/downloads/compas/Practitioners-Guide-COMPAS-Core-_031915.pdf">COMPAS documents</a> state the results should not be used for sentencing decisions. Instead, it was designed to assist in supervisory decisions concerning offender needs. Other tool developers tend to indicate that their tool predicts risk at a rate <a href="https://fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/R44087.pdf">better than chance</a>. </p>
<p>There are also a host of thorny issues with risk assessment tools incorporating, either directly or indirectly, <a href="http://risk-resilience.berkeley.edu/sites/default/files/journal-articles/files/annurev-clinpsy-021815-092945.pdf">sociodemographic variables</a>, such as gender, race and social class. Law professor <a href="https://law.ucdavis.edu/faculty/chander/">Anupam Chander</a> has named it the problem of the “<a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/Delivery.cfm/SSRN_ID2798402_code366600.pdf?abstractid=2795203&mirid=1">racist algorithm</a>.”</p>
<p>Big data may have its allure. But, data-driven tools cannot make the individual predictions that sentencing decisions require. The Supreme Court might helpfully opine on these legal and scientific issues by deciding to hear the Loomis case.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/77931/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Melissa Hamilton does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The Supreme Court may soon hear a case on data-driven criminal sentencing. Research suggests that algorithms are not as good as we think they are at making these decisions.Melissa Hamilton, Visiting Criminal Law Scholar, University of Houston Law Center, University of HoustonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/750352017-03-29T01:44:14Z2017-03-29T01:44:14ZWhat motivates moral outrage?<p>When <a href="http://nypost.com/2017/01/30/all-travelers-detained-under-trump-ban-have-been-released/">109 travelers entering the United States were detained</a> by an executive order blocking citizens from seven Muslim majority countries, tens of thousands of Americans <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2017/01/30/politics/travel-ban-protests-immigration/">gathered all over the country</a> to voice their anger. The policy had little to no direct effect on the protesters themselves.</p>
<p>Similarly, more than four decades after <a href="https://www.oyez.org/cases/1971/70-18">Roe v. Wade</a>, the Supreme Court decision that effectively legalized certain forms of abortion, people regularly gather to <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/hundreds-protests-planned-parenthood-set-today/story?id=45424516">voice their anger</a> at those providing abortion services. </p>
<p>Social psychologists refer to such displays of anger against a third party (such as a government) for perceived harm against someone as <a href="http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1088868309343290">moral outrage</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/162955/original/image-20170328-3812-1kgdr5w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/162955/original/image-20170328-3812-1kgdr5w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/162955/original/image-20170328-3812-1kgdr5w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/162955/original/image-20170328-3812-1kgdr5w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/162955/original/image-20170328-3812-1kgdr5w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/162955/original/image-20170328-3812-1kgdr5w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/162955/original/image-20170328-3812-1kgdr5w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">March for Life 2015.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/americanlifeleague/16187373038/in/photolist-qEqw3A-q118Qw-qWRvZX-qEqei3-qExALv-qU1Qai-qEqnVd-qErJM3-djtqR1-qUH9Qf-pXF5Gg-qErGkQ-qWRddV-wpKTT-FiCRCh-3j2p9R-9mXsLg-qTHdmq-qExL8r-qWVmdW-6ELEQc-T8DaMr-qWZWSv-qWRpGr-pZZN2o-qErMgG-nak1sW-qErxCQ-pofu3Q-qUHcZw-qExHzF-q1127G-QbbX6m-Rp77Sr-dQSjTK-rApoQF-qo1Jg7-q1dwje-pZZNBw-qEzjpg-qX1iUk-qErUiN-QSmVNN-qUHcrs-d7Ha8s-qUH3sq-RNcFQ6-pZZLrj-pZZKdh-qEqfxs">American Life League</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Such moral outrage has taken on a new visibility thanks in part to social media platforms that allow people to effortlessly share their anger with the world. In an age of 24-hour news cycles, the issues can range from <a href="http://www.usmagazine.com/celebrity-news/news/starbucks-new-green-cups-are-causing-outrage-w448553">coffee cups</a> to <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2012/01/25/justice/california-iraq-trial/">war atrocities</a>. </p>
<p>As psychologists, we are particularly interested in understanding what research can tell us about the motives behind moral outrage.</p>
<h2>Does outrage indicate concern for justice?</h2>
<p>On the face of it, the willingness to express outrage could reflect an underlying concern with justice. Research has found that the more people are concerned with justice in general, <a href="http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11211-014-0202-x">the more moral outrage they express</a>. </p>
<p>Furthermore, research shows bystanders’ level of moral outrage can predict their willingness to pursue justice for a victimized group such as <a href="http://search.informit.com.au/documentSummary;dn=032812069598855;res=IELHSS">supporting political action</a>, <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/casp.916/abstract;jsessionid=58D6976653E5EE50C18B0272F703289B.f04t02">engaging in protest</a> or <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1467-9221.2007.00563.x/abstract">punishing a perpetrator</a>. </p>
<p>From this perspective, outrage is driven by differing conceptions of what is just. For example, a recent <a href="http://variety.com/2017/biz/news/budweiser-super-bowl-commercial-trump-1201976846/">Super Bowl ad</a> featuring a Latino mother and young daughter making the long journey from Mexico to the United States – only to be confronted by a border wall – elicited very <a href="http://www.foxnews.com/us/2017/02/06/mixed-message-84-lumbers-super-bowl-ad-spurs-outrage-confusion.html">different responses of outrage</a>. That’s because those who see the exclusion of immigrants as unjust and those who see maintaining a strict border as justified share a common desire to promote what they see as moral.</p>
<p>However, this does not explain why people sometimes engage in displays of outrage that, while highly visible, are unlikely to restore justice. For instance, it is unclear how injustice is rectified by tweeting one’s intention to <a href="https://www.buzzfeed.com/stephaniemcneal/boycott-hawaii?utm_term=.wj1agxA9x#.qbqmWZOKZMc">boycott Hawaii</a> after a federal judge from the state blocked the president’s revised travel ban.</p>
<h2>Is outrage a signal to others?</h2>
<p>From our perspective, such public displays of outrage make more sense if they are viewed as a means of communicating information about oneself. While announcing one’s desire to punish Hawaii by withholding business has no appreciable effect on the judicial process, it does communicate one’s political and social allegiances.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v530/n7591/abs/nature16981.html">Researchers at Yale</a> tested the idea that punishing a third party may signal one’s virtue to observers. They found that bystanders were often willing to sacrifice their own resources to punish another for unfair behavior. Such bystanders, who were viewed as more honest and trustworthy, profited in subsequent interactions. </p>
<p>Researchers also found that bystanders were <a href="https://theconversation.com/evolution-of-moral-outrage-ill-punish-your-bad-behavior-to-make-me-look-good-55103">less likely to punish</a> people for their bad behavior if the bystanders could signal their virtuousness more easily, such as by helping someone.</p>
<p>However, a “virtue signaling perspective” of outrage does not explain outrage regularly seen on platforms such as Twitter, <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/TheBluePill/">TheBluePill on Reddit</a> or <a href="https://medium.com/@nuckable/on-the-manufacturing-of-outrage-17b9e810c358#.oqt8vjr82">4chan</a> where people commonly use anonymous handles to express outrage without being personally identified. </p>
<p>Furthermore, this research does not consider the fact that bystanders often contribute to, or at least benefit from, “illegitimate” harm-doing: Consumers may be <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/timworstall/2016/12/19/the-outrage-of-child-labour-in-bangladeshs-sweatshops/#48c1c8746fe1">outraged</a> over the fact that garments are produced by sweatshop or child labor, yet still continue to support offending companies. In such cases, outrage is partially an attack on one’s own hypocrisy. </p>
<h2>Is it a reflection of guilt?</h2>
<p>So why do people express outrage even when a standard of justice is self-implicating or when they have no audience? </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/162956/original/image-20170328-3798-1nq0990.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/162956/original/image-20170328-3798-1nq0990.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/162956/original/image-20170328-3798-1nq0990.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/162956/original/image-20170328-3798-1nq0990.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/162956/original/image-20170328-3798-1nq0990.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/162956/original/image-20170328-3798-1nq0990.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/162956/original/image-20170328-3798-1nq0990.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Is moral outrage about projecting an upright image?</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/nez/1181091743/in/photolist-2NnpqK-p3X3u2-pkmqGu-aCM5RL-2NvTmU-2NtR4L-p3TfS7-2NtQp7-2NscML-2NnHLT-2Nw4z3-2NvYvG-2NtdeS-5GD1i9-2NvoiE-2NvCsC-qz7E8z-2NnE2n-2NvGPU-qadTH4-caGW1u-2NnDkt-2Nnro8-2Nsqmd-2NnAyr-2NnJRv-79WZpf-2NpqmK-2NqwDa-2NswkN-2Nobst-5GyRZc-2Nri6t-2Nw2FN-2NojEV-2Ns5u3-2Nop9H-2NpugK-caGS8o-2Np144-regJdU-pkf1tR-oSzWTc-2FR3XM-7kFQLW-7rfK8U-7kS8t1-p4A85v-dJQn8w-p3JAfc">Andrew</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Our work highlights a third motive that is based on people’s desire to <a href="https://philpapers.org/rec/MONTDM-2">view themselves as morally upright people</a>. Threats to one’s moral self-image have been shown to elicit unpleasant feelings of guilt that can motivate efforts to restore a positive view of oneself. This is commonly expressed by issuing an <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1348/014466604X18974/full">apology</a> or <a href="http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0146167202238377">making amends</a>.</p>
<p>We wondered whether expressing moral outrage may be driven by these concerns. We tested this by manipulating and measuring people’s feelings of culpability for harm. We then assessed their outrage and desire to punish a third party for similar behavior.</p>
<p>Here’s how we did that.</p>
<p>In an <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0022103113001017">initial study</a> conducted in 2013, 133 college students came into the lab and read a fabricated news article that reminded them of how their choices harmed working-class Americans or not. Participants then read a second fabricated article implying that the financial gains of illegal immigrants were coming at a cost to working-class Americans.</p>
<p>We chose illegal immigrants as a target based on <a href="http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/business/general_business/august_2015/americans_think_illegals_are_taking_their_jobs">a fairly widespread belief</a> that immigrants steal jobs from working-class Americans. After reading the second article, participants reported their anger and desire to punish illegal immigrants for harming the interests of working-class Americans. </p>
<p>We found that those who thought about their own actions and how they caused harm expressed increased outrage and a greater desire to punish illegal immigrants. </p>
<p>More recently, we conducted a <a href="http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs11031-017-9601-2">series of five studies</a> with over 1,000 American adults. We explored the relationship between guilt and outrage over labor exploitation and destructive environmental practices in corporations.</p>
<p>In one study, participants read a fabricated news article that either blamed the harmful effects of climate change on their own consumer behavior or on Chinese consumers. Participants then rated their guilt over their environmental impact either before or after completing a separate questionnaire allowing them to express outrage at multinational oil companies’ environmentally destructive practices. </p>
<p>We found that those exposed to information attributing climate change to their own behavior felt more guilt unless they had the opportunity to first express outrage at oil companies. Furthermore, we found that those who felt greater guilt subsequently expressed more outrage.</p>
<p>But how do we know that outrage is motivated by a desire to feel morally worthy? </p>
<p>In another study, participants rated their feelings of guilt about contributing to sweatshop labor conditions and their outrage at a corporation’s harmful sweatshop labor practices. However, between ratings of guilt and outrage we manipulated whether or not participants had the opportunity to affirm their own moral character. </p>
<p>Specifically, half of the participants were asked to write something about themselves that made them feel like a “good and decent person.” We found that guiltier participants were more outraged about sweatshop labor unless they had the opportunity to write about their own personal moral goodness beforehand. </p>
<p>In other words, bolstering their moral self-image diminished the amount of outrage expressed by those who initially reported high levels of guilt.</p>
<h2>More complicated than it seems</h2>
<p>The point is that outrage is much more than an obvious response to injustice. Our view is that outrage is not “merely” a concern with justice, a way to appear virtuous to others, nor even a way to cope with personal guilt. Rather, it is a culmination of many factors that may all play a role.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/162963/original/image-20170328-3772-1mr4i1u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/162963/original/image-20170328-3772-1mr4i1u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/162963/original/image-20170328-3772-1mr4i1u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/162963/original/image-20170328-3772-1mr4i1u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/162963/original/image-20170328-3772-1mr4i1u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/162963/original/image-20170328-3772-1mr4i1u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/162963/original/image-20170328-3772-1mr4i1u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">What is moral outrage all about?</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/wisconsinjobsnow/7116629743/in/photolist-bQSA5P-9pLpG2-9pLq5i-auq3yw-auzUZ8-5W2VsV-PK386-eK4tVm-4W5YZ4-62AK8z-aFYbMT-aFgAr7-aunpM6-ocDJvR-8Khvpk-gDXxxc-6y2rNz-gDY7tR-8KkWC9-6y6A9s-8JnJGy-8Kkzkf-nVazMy-62ARzZ-7CK4A1-8Rpqpp-p897Ah-aw73fR-aFZ4Tc-aJpoY8-aw9yYL-fUPP9L-54qFGF-62ANck-6PZ3P3-aCgrC7-62ALQn-gjUQpr-aJphrz-aNdwhv-54m9Gu-54maLf-awf4sS-54m7k7-62AMaz-62EXQm-aw9vP5-PK38a-62AJXz-aNgNpp">Wisconsin Jobs Now</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Our research confirms that not all outrage is “virtue signaling.” Participants completed an anonymous online survey where answers could not be traced back to them. Even if participants wanted to “look good” despite that anonymity, mere “virtue signaling” would not explain why we found that outrage increased as a function of guilt, nor why we found that allowing people to feel personally moral dampened expressions of outrage. </p>
<p>Secondly, research suggests that not all outrage is merely self-serving. While our work supports this idea, <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1348/014466608X313774/abstract">other research</a> shows that outrage does fuel activism and motivates groups to promote social change. In other words, there is evidence to suggest that outrage can have genuinely moral motives and goals or that it can be driven by personal insecurities or, more likely, some combination thereof. </p>
<p>Third, our research shows that outrage works essentially the same way across the political spectrum. We found that reminding people of their own harmful behavior evoked outrage for both token conservative (e.g., illegal immigration) and liberal issues (e.g., climate change and sweatshop labor). Moreover, guilt predicted outrage regardless of whether participants identified as being politically liberal or conservative. </p>
<h2>Is outrage merely for show? Not so</h2>
<p>In trying to understand what motivates outrage, we would argue that concerns about injustice, social appearance and personal guilt all play a modest role.</p>
<p>To the extent that we value respectful politics, we should acknowledge that an individual’s outrage may in part be about their own needs rather than about the issue per se.</p>
<p>Does that mean that outrage is illegitimate or merely for show? Absolutely not. </p>
<p>Instead, we see the evolving science on outrage as highlighting motives and functions that competing groups share. Recognizing this psychological common ground may help to defuse some of today’s more intractable social and political conflicts.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/75035/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A lot of moral outrage has been expressed lately – over Trump’s travel ban and other issues. The expression of such outrage is more than a response to perceived injustice.Zachary K. Rothschild, Assistant Professor of Psychology, Bowdoin CollegeLucas A. Keefer, Assistant Professor in Psychology, The University of Southern MississippiLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/595302016-06-30T02:19:08Z2016-06-30T02:19:08ZThe shame game: why it’s time to end the ‘mummy wars’<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/126242/original/image-20160613-29225-1aio7d2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">We need to actively build a mother culture grounded in safety and acceptance.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-414960658/stock-photo-mom-and-baby.html?src=wEB5-bq9lTU015fveuDFHw-1-64">en.antresalt.com/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Women experience <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1751-9020.2010.00283.x/abstract">shame and judgement</a> from the earliest moments of motherhood. Mothers commonly experience shaming in connection with <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/14726774">childbirth</a> and <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25138617">infant feeding</a>, regardless of the type of birth they had or the feeding method used. The existence of “mother guilt” is so well acknowledged by social commentators it is almost a cliché. </p>
<p>But the experience we call “mother guilt” is not really guilt at all. What we are really talking about is <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1300/J015v25n01_04">shame</a>; a painful emotional experience that can make us feel unworthy, unattractive, disliked or likely to be rejected. Although we can feel both at the same time, shame and guilt are quite different experiences.</p>
<p>An environment rife with shame is a fertile breeding ground for conflict, pitting mother against mother. </p>
<h2>Where does shame come from?</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/40971967?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents">Evolutionary theory</a> gives us a useful framework to understand the mother shame culture, and clearly distinguishes between shame and guilt. </p>
<p>Guilt plays an important role in our <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/40971967?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents">capacity to be care-givers</a>. It discourages us from harming others and prompts us to repair the harm we have done. Guilt is unpleasant but it’s an important part of our moral life. </p>
<p>Shame, in contrast, is how we <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/40971967?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents">respond to social threat</a>. For most animals, a social threat equates with physical aggression. So our evolved strategies for managing social threat are the kinds of responses that were useful to our ancestors when they were being physically threatened: escape and hide, adopt submissive behaviour towards the attacker, or fight back. </p>
<p>As a result, shame primes us for concealing, submissive and aggressive behaviour. It triggers a heady mix of humiliation, defeat, sadness, anxiety and anger. We may find ourselves hiding away, internalising the criticism and feeling fundamentally flawed within ourselves, or aggressively fighting back against those we perceive as responsible for our shaming experience.</p>
<h2>Shame is toxic</h2>
<p>Of course, our social world is much more complex than the animal world. We have evolved to be conscious of other people’s perceptions of us. Most of our social threats are not physical, but threats of rejection or the loss of our social place. </p>
<p>The social threat and shame are particularly toxic for new mothers, who often already feel socially vulnerable as they try to adopt a new social role. Shame and the submissive response strategies that instinctively swing into action can trigger <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/1099-0879(200007)7:3%3C174::AID-CPP236%3E3.0.CO;2-U/abstract">low mood, anxiety and stress, and make us vulnerable to depression</a>. Women who <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25138629">want to breastfeed but can’t</a>, for instance, are particularly vulnerable to postnatal depression.</p>
<p>Shame also triggers instincts to conceal; to protect yourself from further social threats. In such an environment, we are unlikely to ask for help, instead seeing our mistakes and failures as harbingers of our social rejection.</p>
<p>The third impulse that shame creates in us is the instinct to fight back. While understandable, the instinct to aggressively defend against the threat by fighting back against those we perceive as responsible for our shaming experience further entrenches a shaming culture. </p>
<p>The so-called “mummy wars” are not only the result of our evolved instinctual response to shame, but also a breeding ground in which fresh shaming experiences are created. It is a vicious cycle.</p>
<h2>Lay down your weapons</h2>
<p>Calling for an end to specific shaming experiences is not enough. And we must be careful not to succumb to our own aggressive impulses. Instead, we need to actively build a mother culture grounded in safety and acceptance. </p>
<p>If mothers are to successfully negotiate the steep learning curve of early motherhood, they must be free to experiment flexibly. To make mistakes. To ask for help. And to grow into their new roles. New mothers must feel safe and accepted within the social milieu.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>Our <a href="https://exp.psy.uq.edu.au/mothercare/">MotherCare Project</a> is investigating the experience of shame in motherhood, helping find ways to undo the toxic effects of shame. We are inviting mothers of babies under two years of age to participate in a brief <a href="https://exp.psy.uq.edu.au/mothercare/">online study</a>.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/59530/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Koa Whittingham is engaged in research collaborations with the not-for-profit organisation Possums. This has included working with Possums to develop novel approaches for postpartum support. Koa Whittingham has donated her time and intellectual property freely to Possums, earning no income or royalties from the association. Koa Whittingham is the author of Becoming Mum, a self-help book for the psychological transition to motherhood.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>The Triple P – Positive Parenting Program is owned by The University of Queensland. The University, through its main technology transfer company, UniQuest Pty Ltd, has licensed Triple P International Pty Ltd to publish and disseminate the program worldwide. Royalties stemming from published Triple P resources are distributed in accordance with the University’s intellectual property policy and flow to the Parenting and Family Support Centre, School of Psychology, Faculty of Health and Behavioural Sciences, and contributory authors. No author has any share or ownership in Triple P International Pty Ltd. Amy Mitchell is a staff member employed at the Parenting and Family Support Centre.</span></em></p>An environment rife with shame is a fertile breeding ground for conflict: pitting mother against mother.Koa Whittingham, Psychologist and Research Fellow, The University of QueenslandAmy Mitchell, Research Coordinator, The University of QueenslandLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/542292016-02-08T20:07:46Z2016-02-08T20:07:46ZFeeling sleepy? You might be at risk of falsely confessing to a crime you did not commit<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/110530/original/image-20160207-8251-nw8psl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Innocence puts you at risk in an interrogation room.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.innocenceproject.org/causes-wrongful-conviction/unvalidated-or-improper-forensic-science">Interrogation image via www.shutterstock.com.</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>If you are one of the millions of people who have listened to the podcast “<a href="https://serialpodcast.org">Serial</a>” or watched Netflix’s series “<a href="https://www.netflix.com/title/80000770">Making a Murderer</a>,” you may believe there are innocent people in prison.</p>
<p>But long before the cases of Adnan Syed, Steven Avery and Brendan Dassey were brought to the public’s attention, we and other researchers have been hard at work studying how it is that innocent people sometimes <a href="http://www.brandonlgarrett.com/#/convictingtheinnocent/">go to prison for crimes they did not commit</a>. In fact, a recent report documented that in 2015, there were a <a href="https://www.law.umich.edu/special/exoneration/Documents/Exonerations_in_2015.pdf">record number of exonerations</a> in the United States.</p>
<p>While it’s difficult, if not impossible, to determine how many people have been wrongfully convicted in the United States, real-life cases reveal some of the <a href="http://www.innocenceproject.org/causes-wrongful-conviction">common causes of wrongful conviction</a>. Along with mistaken eyewitness testimony and <a href="http://www.innocenceproject.org/causes-wrongful-conviction/unvalidated-or-improper-forensic-science">flawed forensic science evidence</a>, one leading cause of wrongful conviction is false confessions.</p>
<p>Yes, you read that correctly: innocent people can and do confess to horrific crimes they never committed. False confessions are a factor in approximately <a href="http://www.innocenceproject.org/causes-wrongful-conviction/false-confessions-or-admissions">25 percent of DNA exonerations</a> in the United States. While you may think that you personally would never confess to a rape or murder you didn’t commit, research has shown that <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0003-066X.60.3.215">innocent people are especially vulnerable</a> in an interrogation room. Why is this the case?</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/110516/original/image-20160206-18264-1psvkrl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/110516/original/image-20160206-18264-1psvkrl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/110516/original/image-20160206-18264-1psvkrl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/110516/original/image-20160206-18264-1psvkrl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/110516/original/image-20160206-18264-1psvkrl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/110516/original/image-20160206-18264-1psvkrl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/110516/original/image-20160206-18264-1psvkrl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/110516/original/image-20160206-18264-1psvkrl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The police interviews of Brendan Dassey, whose case is featured in ‘Making a Murderer,’ included many of the hallmarks of a false confession.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Why would an innocent person falsely confess?</h2>
<p>False confession experts Richard Leo and Steven Drizin eloquently explain that there are typically <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/12085-001">three pathways to a false confession</a>. First, police officers mistakenly conclude that an innocent suspect is guilty. In the initial stages of the interview or interrogation, interrogators attempt to detect a suspect’s guilt or innocence through their demeanor, tone of voice and body language. The danger here is that the training police officers commonly receive on detecting deception is <a href="http://digitalcommons.utep.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1036&context=christian_meissner">fraught with error</a>.</p>
<p>Next, coercive tactics are introduced. The interrogation may be filled with accusations that the suspect is guilty, lies that there is convincing evidence against that person (police are <a href="http://www.apa.org/monitor/2014/05/jn.aspx">legally permitted to lie to you</a>) and promises of leniency and sympathy. The interrogation may last a few hours, or in some cases, <a href="http://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/juan-rivera-and-the-dangers-of-coercive-interrogation">even a few days</a>.</p>
<p>Once the innocent suspect admits his or her guilt, the police then (perhaps inadvertently) contaminate the suspect’s memory. It’s not enough for the suspect to say, “I did it”; he or she must also provide a detailed narrative of the crime that fits the evidence. Whether this is done by asking leading questions (as was the case in <a href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/allenstjohn/2016/01/13/the-truth-will-help-brendan-dassey-a-conversation-with-making-a-murderer-attorney-laura-nirider/">Brendan Dassey’s interrogation</a>, presenting the suspect with crime scene photos or playing on the suspect’s memory, the goal is to get the suspect to provide a detailed confession.</p>
<p>Researchers have also discovered that certain people might be <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10979-009-9188-6">particularly vulnerable to giving a false confession</a>. For instance, youth are at heightened risk. Compared to adults, children are less able to think of long-term consequences, are more suggestible and are more focused on immediate rewards (for instance, “<a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/news/why-do-people-falsely-confess-to-crimes/">If I confess now, I can go home tonight</a>”). Individuals with cognitive impairments and/or mental illness are also at increased risk of confessing to a crime they did not commit. Certain personality types may be especially susceptible, too. People who are more suggestible and/or compliant are vulnerable in an interrogation room. </p>
<h2>Consider another risk factor: sleep deprivation</h2>
<p>In our new research, <a href="http://www.pnas.org/cgi/doi/10.1073/pnas.1521518113">published in the <em>Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences</em></a>, we uncovered yet another factor that may put people at risk of falsely confessing – sleep deprivation. Although we know that law enforcement officers sometimes interrogate suspects <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10979-006-9073-">during normal sleeping hours</a> (12-8 a.m.), there had been no empirical studies investigating the effect of sleep deprivation on the likelihood that someone will falsely confess.</p>
<p>To examine this issue, we recruited 88 college students to take part in an experiment. </p>
<p>Participants arrived at the <a href="http://psychology.msu.edu/SleepLab/Default.aspx">sleep lab</a> and completed several computer-based tasks. In a <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9280.1996.tb00344.x">procedure</a> adapted from leading false confession expert Saul Kassin and his colleague Katherine Kiechel, we sternly and repeatedly warned participants never to press the “escape” key on their computer keyboards – we led them to believe that doing so would cause the loss of valuable study data.</p>
<p>About a week later, participants returned to the lab and either slept there overnight, or remained awake all night long. The following morning, we showed all participants a statement that documented their prior activities in the lab. Critically, the statement falsely alleged that the participant had pressed the “escape” key during the first visit to the lab. Then we urged participants to verify that the information in the statement was correct by signing their name.</p>
<p>Compared to rested participants, sleep-deprived participants were far more likely to sign the statement and falsely admit to the wrongdoing. After just one request, 18 percent of rested participants signed the statement, compared to 50 percent of sleep-deprived participants. When those who refused to sign were again urged to do so, now 39 percent of rested participants and 68 percent of sleep-deprived participants signed the statement.</p>
<p>Two simple, easily administered measures also predicted rates of false confession in our sample. Participants who were sleep-deprived were especially likely to falsely confess if they <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1257/089533005775196732">exhibited an impulsive decision-making style</a>, as measured by the Cognitive Reflection Test. Moreover, participants who indicated they were especially sleepy on the <a href="https://web.stanford.edu/%7Edement/sss.html">Stanford Sleepiness Scale</a> were also at increased risk of falsely confessing, regardless of whether they had slept or were sleep-deprived.</p>
<p>Our new findings add to the growing body of research on the <a href="http://web.williams.edu/Psychology/Faculty/Kassin/files/drizenl.leo.04.pdf">causes and consequences of false confessions</a>. Further research into the factors that contribute to false confession is crucial given that the implications of false confessions, and wrongful convictions more generally, are far too great – not only do the innocent suffer (potentially for years in prison), but the guilty remain free to commit more crimes. </p>
<hr>
<p><em>By Shari R. Berkowitz, Steven J. Frenda, Elizabeth F. Loftus and Kimberly M. Fenn</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/54229/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Innocent people do confess to terrible crimes they had nothing to do with. Psychologists are investigating factors that contribute to false confession – including how well-rested a suspect feels.Shari Berkowitz, Assistant Professor of Criminal Justice Administration, California State University, Dominguez HillsElizabeth Loftus, Distinguished Professor of Psychology and Social Behavior, University of California, IrvineKimberly Fenn, Associate Professor of Psychology, Michigan State UniversitySteven Frenda, Postdoctoral Fellow in Psychology at the New School for Social Research, The New SchoolLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/519492016-01-04T11:11:19Z2016-01-04T11:11:19ZPleasure is good: How French children acquire a taste for life<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/106695/original/image-20151218-27894-tboysh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Pleasure at the table, pleasure in life.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/bubbo-tubbo/3888075609">Natasha Mileshina</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>One of the most common New Year’s resolutions people make is to lose weight by dieting. The idea is that restricting the pleasures of tasty foods will lead to greater fitness and a finer physique. But if these rewards are so valuable, why is it so hard for us to stick to our resolution? Maybe the problem is that when we try to lose weight, we also lose the pleasure of eating. </p>
<p>What if we could have it all? Keep the pleasure <em>and</em> stick to our resolution? In the US, we tend to compartmentalize pleasure, separating it from our daily chores and relegating it to special times. We have happy hours, not happy days. We have guilty pleasures, as if enjoying chocolate or a favorite movie is a moral failing. </p>
<p>In France, pleasure, or <em>“plaisir,”</em> is not a dirty word. It’s not considered hedonistic to pursue pleasure. Perhaps a better translation of the word is “enjoyment” or even “delight.” Pleasure, in fact, takes the weight of a moral value, because according to the French, pleasure serves as a compass guiding people in their actions. And parents begin teaching their children from very early childhood in a process called the education of taste, or <em>“l’éducation du gout.”</em></p>
<h2>Taste as a gateway to understanding pleasure</h2>
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<span class="caption">Food is just the first step.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/ylegrand/8328968951">Yohann Legrand</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
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<p>The education of taste means teaching children to appreciate and savor the wide variety of flavors in the world and to eat properly at the table. In my eight months conducting <a href="http://doi.org/10.1525/eth.2004.32.3.293">research on French parenting</a> in Paris, I found that the education of taste begins very early in families and is reinforced in daycare centers, where even two-year-olds are served formal, yet relaxed, four-course lunches with an appetizer, main course, cheese plate and dessert. </p>
<p>But taste education <a href="http://doi.org/10.1080/01650250143000175">goes beyond cultivating your children’s palate</a>. It’s about awakening and stimulating all the senses as well as the mind and emotions. On a survey listing 50 parenting practices with infants and toddlers, 455 French mothers and fathers in my study rated what we called “stimulating practices” as more important than responding to basic needs and teaching manners. Stimulating practices included reading to children, playing music and giving them massages. The ultimate goal of stimulating children is to develop their understanding of what gives them pleasure. </p>
<h2>Restrictions that actually open up the world</h2>
<p>The moment that tied it all together for me was when I asked a mother in my research study why it was important to train her children to behave properly in public. She simply replied, “Because if they know how to behave properly, they will know how to adapt and get along with people. And that will give them pleasure.” Adhering to social rules is a means to greater pleasure. You have to give up something to gain something greater. </p>
<p>As Americans, we are taught to deny pleasure and <a href="http://www.ucpress.edu/book.php?isbn=9780520254190">venerate self-sacrifice and hard work</a>. And when we finally take time off to have fun, we often do things in excess. We party hard. We eat and drink too much. And then we feel guilty. When we enjoy food too much, we say we’ve been “bad.” Maybe if we didn’t deprive ourselves of simple pleasures all day every day, we wouldn’t feel so compelled to overdo it on weekends. </p>
<p>A comparative study found that when American parents talked to their children at the dinner table, they talked about what children <a href="http://doi.org/10.1080/00141844.1996.9981526">should eat in nutritional and moral terms</a>. When the Italians talked at the table, they talked about what their children wanted to eat, and encouraged them to develop their individual tastes.</p>
<p>One of the most surprising things that French mothers shared with me in my research was their belief that stimulating children’s appetites for a <a href="http://doi.org/10.1525/eth.2004.32.3.293">wide variety of life’s pleasures</a> can actually deter them from becoming addicted to drugs!</p>
<p>Those moms may have been on to something.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/106744/original/image-20151220-27897-1tpqopq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/106744/original/image-20151220-27897-1tpqopq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/106744/original/image-20151220-27897-1tpqopq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/106744/original/image-20151220-27897-1tpqopq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/106744/original/image-20151220-27897-1tpqopq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/106744/original/image-20151220-27897-1tpqopq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/106744/original/image-20151220-27897-1tpqopq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/106744/original/image-20151220-27897-1tpqopq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">At the table, with distractions minimized.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.shutterstock.com/pic.mhtml?id=114546322&src=id">Family image via www.shutterstock.com.</a></span>
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<h2>Focused family meals</h2>
<p>According to a recent national <a href="http://www.casacolumbia.org/addiction-research/reports/importance-of-family-dinners-2012">survey</a> in the US by CASAColumbia, teens who have more frequent family meals have better relationships with their parents, and are less likely to smoke or use drugs and alcohol. Sitting around the table talking with your teenagers at least five times a week, even for just 20 minutes, has <a href="http://www.uconnruddcenter.org/files/Pdfs/ReclaimingFamilyTable.pdf">positive, lasting effects on their health and on family relationships</a>.</p>
<p>But having regular family dinners can be a challenge. Children and adolescents have busy afterschool schedules, and for some parents juggling jobs, working long hours or not having a partner make it virtually impossible to find a moment when everyone is home. But research suggests that making even a little time to have those conversations around the table can have big payoffs down the road. </p>
<p>When you do sit down at the table, leave the television and the phones off until the meal is over. In a recent study, researchers had two groups of families share a meal in a lab made to look like a dining room. One group had no distractions, and the other group heard a continuous loud noise coming from a room adjacent to theirs. The researchers found that the <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/cfp0000047">distracted group consumed more cookies</a>. The harder it was to focus on the meal, the more they were tempted to overeat.</p>
<p>The French idea of education of taste has much in common with the notion of mindfulness. Both traditions focus on giving yourself over to the moment and living it fully. If you are going to enjoy your favorite food, really enjoy it and don’t feel guilty. Notice the subtlety or the intensity of the flavors and savor each morsel. Lose yourself in the pleasure. As we start a new year, if we must deprive ourselves for a distant goal, why not at least find and enjoy the many small pleasures along the way?</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/51949/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Marie-Anne Suizzo works for the University of Texas at Austin. She received funding from the Spencer Foundation for her research on parental involvement in low-income US families. She is a Public Voices Fellow with the OpEd Project.</span></em></p>If New Year’s resolutions have you in an abstemious mindset when it comes to enjoyment these days, consider a pleasure recalibration based on ‘l'éducation du gout.’Marie-Anne Suizzo, Associate Professor of Educational Psychology, The University of Texas at AustinLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/451642015-08-12T20:34:55Z2015-08-12T20:34:55ZFive things every guilty parent needs to know<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/90964/original/image-20150806-1944-v49u5e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Nobody's perfect – not you, and not your kids. And that's OK.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-13318435/stock-photo-worn-out-mother-with-crying-baby.html?src=pd-same_model-13318426-aHPwdVnypj6MrVjLzTFs6A-3">from www.shutterstock.com</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>It’s the guilty secret many parents are reluctant to admit aloud: no matter how much you love your kids, being a parent can <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed?Db=pubmed&Cmd=Retrieve&list_uids=22947781&dopt=abstractplus">make you feel bad</a>. </p>
<p>But Google knows you’re not alone. Look up the phrase <a href="https://www.google.com.au/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=guilty+parent">guilty parent</a> and you’ll get more than 70 million results. Unfortunately, most of that advice is based on <a href="http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052748704111504576059713528698754">opinion</a>, <a href="http://www.parenting.com/article/debunking-pregnancy-old-wives-tales">folklore</a> or <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/emily-nichols-grossi/10-pearls-of-parenting-wisdom_b_7026776.html">individual experience</a>; it’s rarely based on evidence.</p>
<p>So what exactly do we know about the causes of parental guilt? And how can you turn feeling bad into a change for the better?</p>
<h2>Don’t worry – it’s normal</h2>
<p>The first, and perhaps most important, thing to know about parental guilt is that, at some point, every parent will experience it.</p>
<p>One of the best parts of our work is running parenting classes, where complete strangers from all walks of life come to learn <a href="http://www.parentingrc.org.au/images/stories/evidence_review_parenting_interventions/main_report_evidencereviewparentinginterventions.pdf">evidence-based strategies</a> to increase their confidence and skills.</p>
<p>We start each new class by asking parents why they’ve come. And in every class, as we work our way around the room, one parent after another admits that they are not sure what to do – they’ve read the books, Googled the answers, listened to their neighbours, tried the old wives’ tales, and whatever they try <em>still</em> isn’t working. </p>
<p>As they share their stories, the mood in the room lifts. People start to smile in recognition; maybe they’re <a href="http://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/parenting/what-no-one-tells-you-about-parenting-it-sucks-a-lot-of-the-time/story-fnet08xa-1227427579720">not the only ones</a> who are struggling with life’s greatest gift – their children!</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">ABC TV’s The Checkout satirises the endless ways mothers are guilted into buying things they don’t need.</span></figcaption>
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<h2>Understanding the guilty brain</h2>
<p>People feel guilt when their actions or thoughts don’t match their standards for themselves. It is considered a <a href="http://www.annualreviews.org/doi/abs/10.1146/annurev.psych.51.1.665">moral emotion</a> that helps us regulate our interactions with others.</p>
<p>Guilt can be useful when it enables us to be self-reflective and to <a href="http://doi.wiley.com/10.1111/1467-6494.00001">pay attention to others’s emotions</a>. When a person feels guilty, they experience an increased activation of brain areas involved with <a href="http://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S1053811904004288">taking another person’s perspective</a> and <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0304394009004133">being empathic</a>. As a result, guilt often motivates people to <a href="http://pss.sagepub.com/content/18/6/524.short">make amends</a>. </p>
<p>However, guilt can be a harmful emotion – especially because not everyone who feels guilty takes action to decrease their guilt. When people feel guilty, they are likely first to <a href="http://pss.sagepub.com/content/18/6/524.short">withdraw from the situation</a>. Guilt has been described as a way to <a href="http://www.annualreviews.org/doi/abs/10.1146/annurev.psych.51.1.665">punish oneself</a>.</p>
<p>One study even found that parents cited <a href="http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2458/14/657">guilt as a barrier to exercise</a>. There is evidence that supports the common saying that people feel “<a href="http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0069546">weighed down by guilt</a>”.</p>
<h2>Common causes of guilt, from work to play</h2>
<p><a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18211146">Balancing a career and a family</a> is a great source of guilt for both men and women. <a href="http://psycnet.apa.org.ezproxy.library.uq.edu.au/index.cfm?fa=search.displayRecord&id=FB666926-F012-65FC-E9C4-B6CC08535B89&resultID=19&page=1&dbTab=all&search=true">Research</a> has also shown that women can feel a sense of guilt and failure about having lowered levels of libido and subsequent intimacy with their partners following childbirth. </p>
<p>An annual checkup with the paediatrician can be another source of guilt for parents, especially if they find out that their child may be <a href="http://hpq.sagepub.com/content/20/5/649.full">at risk for obesity</a>.</p>
<p>Then, as children grow and other siblings come along, parents can feel guilty about <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed?Db=pubmed&Cmd=Retrieve&list_uids=22947781&dopt=abstractplus">favouring</a> one child over the other.</p>
<p>Discipline is another common source of guilt. Parents will often say they feel guilty about being too lenient with their children and “caving in”; they can feel equally guilty about becoming aggravated and resorting to yelling or smacking. </p>
<p>Then there’s techno-guilt: worrying about <a href="http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=2702199">phone use in the playground</a> and feeling unease about using <a href="https://www.ecu.edu.au/news/latest-news/2014/12/toddlers-and-tablets-parents-techno-guilt">phones and other devices</a> to distract toddlers and preschoolers.</p>
<h2>Five tips for parental guilt</h2>
<p>Given these and many more potential causes of parental guilt, how can you avoid becoming overwhelmed?</p>
<p><strong>1. Remember – parental guilt is normal</strong></p>
<p>The next time you’re feeling like the worst parent in the world, remember: every parent feels like that at times. Sometimes, simply reminding yourself of that can be enough to get you through the day.</p>
<p><strong>2. Let go of perfection</strong></p>
<p>Having realistic expectations of yourself and your children can make a big difference. At the end of a long day, dealing with a toddler who refuses to go to bed will never be easy. Be realistic about your capacity to solve every problem effortlessly and without stress. It’s not always possible.</p>
<p>Nobody’s perfect. Not you, and not your kids. And that’s OK.</p>
<p><strong>3. Channel your thoughts and feelings into action</strong></p>
<p>Guilt can weigh you down and hold you back – or it can be the start of a change for the better.</p>
<p>While guilt can be harmful, it’s also associated with positive traits, such as being more empathetic. Let the knowledge that guilt is linked to a desire to do something differently motivate you to change what’s making you feel guilty.</p>
<p><strong>4. Seek out reliable, evidence-informed parenting advice</strong></p>
<p>Look for programs that have evidence of their effectiveness, including evidence of scientific success in actually resolving the issue at hand. And consider what form of help suits you best: are you looking for resources online, in a group setting or one-on-one in person? </p>
<p>If you’re looking for places to start, some good options to check out include the <a href="http://www.raisingchildren.net.au">Raising Children Network</a> in Australia, <a href="http://www.blueprintsprograms.com/">Blueprints for Healthy Youth Development</a> in the United States, or the UK government’s <a href="http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20140311170415/http://education.gov.uk/commissioning-toolkit/Programme/ParentsSearch">Department of Education</a>.</p>
<p><strong>5. Create a network of encouragement with other parents</strong></p>
<p>You can build your own network of encouragement with other parents. Share your stories – not just the highs, which are natural to want to talk up, but also the lows – and offer positive feedback. </p>
<p>The goal is to create a connected group of people who prompt one another to share ideas and access evidence-informed information.</p>
<p>And whenever you need to, go back to tip 1: remind yourself and your friends that feeling guilty is a normal part of being a parent.</p>
<p><em>* John Pickering’s author Q&A is now over, but you can read his comments below or listen to his <a href="https://soundcloud.com/702abcsydney/the-f-factor-parental-guilt-with-john-pickering">interview on ABC Sydney 702</a>. You can also have your say on this topic via this <a href="https://uqpsych.qualtrics.com/SE/?SID=SV_895Gk0Yz6UK0Qrr&Q_JFE=0">two-minute research survey</a>.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/45164/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>John Pickering is an employee of The University of Queensland (UQ). UQ owns The Triple P-Positive Parenting Program. The University through its technology transfer company, UniQuest Pty Ltd, has licensed Triple P International Pty Ltd to publish and disseminate the program worldwide. Royalties stemming from published Triple P resources are distributed to the University and contributory authors. John Pickering has no authorial connection to Triple P and is not a financial recipient of program dissemination. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Margaret Crane is an employee of The University of Queensland (UQ). UQ owns The Triple P-Positive Parenting Program. The University through its technology transfer company, UniQuest Pty Ltd, has licensed Triple P International Pty Ltd to publish and disseminate the program worldwide. Royalties stemming from published Triple P resources are distributed to the University and contributory authors. Margaret Crane has no authorial connection to Triple P and is not a financial recipient of program dissemination. </span></em></p>Feeling guilty and out of your depth as a parent? You’re not alone – and there are ways to turn the guilt you’re feeling into positive changes for your family.John Pickering, Head, Triple P Innovation Precinct, The University of QueenslandMargaret Crane, Research and Innovation Officer, The University of QueenslandLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.