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This paper aims to challenge the notion that “having-less” – limiting consumption of scarce resources to a select few – represents a social responsibility route toward guilt reduction. It rather argues that “saving-more” – the purposeful pursuit of conscious and collaborative consumption – captures consumers’ true representations of responsible luxury which in turn reduces anticipated guilt.

Six experiments using different operationalizations of saving-more (vs. having-less) and a mix of fictitious and real luxury brands were conducted on real luxury buyers.

The findings demonstrate that saving-more (vs. having-less) leads to a stronger purchase intention; an effect explained by a higher responsible luxury perception and lower anticipated guilt associated with saving-more (vs. having-less). Furthermore, the ability of saving-more (vs. having-less) in building responsible luxury perception and reducing anticipated guilt is stronger (vs. weaker) when luxury is distributed based on deservingness (vs. entitlement).

This research proposes a novel distinction between two responsible luxury approaches: promoting limited consumption for business goals, that is, having-less and promoting conscious consumption for societal goals, that is, saving-more.

Brand managers can enhance responsible luxury perception and reduce consumer guilt through corporate communication, product communication and collaborative product accessibility modes. Managers must also convince consumers that their access to luxury is based on real achievements.

This study empirically invalidates the notion that merely invoking scarcity and rarity tactics is an expression of social responsibility. It integrates social responsibility and fairness accounts of guilt into a coherent theory of guilt over luxury consumption.

This study aims to investigate the moderating role of hedonic and utilitarian purchase motives for the presentation order effect. Although past research finds that presenting item first and price later (e.g. 70 items for $29) increases consumers’ purchase intention more than presenting the information in the opposite order (e.g. $29 for 70 items), the effect was mostly examined in a hedonic consumption context. This study examines whether the effect is applicable for hedonic purchases but is less applicable for utilitarian purchases, and why.

Seven experiments tested the moderating effect of purchase motives for the presentation order effect. Two serial mediation analyses were conducted to examine the underlying mechanism.

The “item-price” (vs “price-item”) order increases hedonic purchases, but not utilitarian purchases. Because consumers feel guilty about hedonic purchases, they engage in motivated information processing to perceive greater value from their hedonic purchase when item (benefit) information is presented first and price (cost) information is presented later. Perceiving greater value reduces guilt, which consequently increases hedonic purchases. In contrast, the order effect is not observed for utilitarian purchases that do not elicit guilt. When a price discount is offered, the order effect is reversed because actual savings justify hedonic purchases better than perceived savings resulting from motivated information processing.

When promoting hedonic products, marketers are recommended to present item information before price information, unless a price discount is offered, in which case the price should be presented first.

This research introduces a novel moderator for the presentation order effect and a novel underlying mechanism, driven by the motivation to alleviate guilt associated with hedonic purchases.

We build on the transactional model of stress and coping and the appraisal theory of emotions to theorize how users cognitively and emotionally cope with IT addiction-induced stress, distinguish between the roles of guilt and shame in shaping the coping responses and their effects on one’s psychological well-being.

We test our theory via two complementary empirical studies in the context of social networking sites (SNS). Study 1 (n = 462) adopts a variable-centered approach using structural equation modeling to validate the research model. Study 2 (n = 409) uses Latent Profile Analysis to identify a typology of SNS users based on Study 1’s findings.

This paper provides a model of guilt-vs shame-driven cognitive-emotional coping with IT addiction and its effects on users’ psychological well-being. It also offers a typology of SNS users on this basis.

This paper sheds light on guilt-vs shame-driven coping with IT addiction and its consequences on users’ psychological well-being and identifies distinct classes of users based on their coping choices and their consequences.

Rabbinic literature of Late Antiquity encompasses legal and exegetical texts. Whereas legal texts delineate criminal procedures to determine a guilty party and advise appropriate punishment, exegetical texts suggest an almost entirely indeterminate and indeterminable understanding of guilt. This chapter examines rabbinic interpretations of the paradigmatic biblical story of guilt, Cain's murder of his brother Abel, in which Cain's guilt is mitigated and the stable relationship between evidence and guilt is challenged. I argue that these conflicting views of guilt in early rabbinic thought need not be harmonized – that a legal understanding of determinate guilt need not require a philosophical, or theological, counterpart.

Nietzsche's and Freud's views of guilt provide a useful theoretical context for understanding the relationship between guilt and Utopia we have outlined in Utopia and Those Who Walk Away From Omelas. Both of them speak of guilt as the internalization of cruelty or the instinct of aggression, and see it as an inward turn that reflects a historical context. Nietzsche views guilt and “bad conscience” as a kind of illness. In The Genealogy of Morals (1887/trans. 1989) he writes, “[I] regard the bad conscience as the serious illness that man was bound to contract under the stress of the most fundamental change he ever experienced – that change which occurred when he found himself finally enclosed within the wall of society and of peace” (Nietzsche, 1989, p. 84). In Nietzsche's view, when faced with peace (the absence of an enemy upon whom one might inflict cruelty) and social mores (proscriptions against being cruel to one's fellow citizen) a civilized human is left with only one subject upon whom he may express his aggression and satisfy his appetite for cruelty: himself. “[He] turns himself into an adventure, a torture chamber, an uncertain and dangerous wilderness” (Nietzsche, 1989, p. 85). Deprived of the possibility of expressing his aggressiveness externally, man turns inward and expresses it internally, upon himself. Thus begins the age – and for Nietzsche it is our age – of “man's suffering of man, of himself” (Nietzsche, 1989, p. 85).

This research draws on drive reduction theory and mental accounting theory to understand how the prospect of reselling used items can influence consumer feelings of consumption guilt and impact their willingness to purchase new products.

We conducted two studies with between-subjects designs to explore this relationship. In Study 1, we examined the correlation between consumers' perceived guilt and their willingness to buy a new product, considering their awareness of the product’s resale potential. Study 2 delved into the aspect of reselling a similar old product already owned by the consumer.

The findings suggest three key insights. First, consumers' awareness of resale potential significantly affects their guilt perception and purchasing decisions. Second, the resale reference price (RRP) can decrease guilt perception but increase the intention to buy a new product. Lastly, when consumers are aware of the resale value of a previously owned product that is similar to the desired new product, the effect of the RRP on their purchasing intent is mediated by consumer guilt.

This research fills a theoretical gap by empirically exploring the emotional motivations behind consumer resale behavior. It presents a novel perspective on how resale activities can shape feelings of guilt and impact purchasing decisions. This offers important implications for understanding the dynamics of consumer behavior in the second-hand market.

Organizational behavior scholars have long recognized the importance of a variety of emotion-related phenomena in everyday work life. Indeed, after three decades, the span of research on emotions in the workplace encompasses a wide variety of affective variables such as emotional climate, emotional labor, emotion regulation, positive and negative affect, empathy, and more recently, specific emotions. Emotions operate in complex ways across multiple levels of analysis (i.e., within-person, between-person, interpersonal, group, and organizational) to exert influence on work behavior and outcomes, but their linkages to human resource management (HRM) policies and practices have not always been explicit or well understood. This chapter offers a review and integration of the bourgeoning research on discrete positive and negative emotions, offering insights about why these emotions are relevant to HRM policies and practices. We review some of the dominant theories that have emerged out of functionalist perspectives on emotions, connecting these to a strategic HRM framework. We then define and describe four discrete positive and negative emotions (fear, pride, guilt, and interest) highlighting how they relate to five HRM practices: (1) selection, (2) training/learning, (3) performance management, (4) incentives/rewards, and (5) employee voice. Following this, we discuss the emotion perception and regulation implications of these and other discrete emotions for leaders and HRM managers. We conclude with some challenges associated with understanding discrete emotions in organizations as well as some opportunities and future directions for improving our appreciation and understanding of the role of discrete emotional experiences in HRM.

Despite the important implications for families, limited research has examined how workplace environments influence parenting behavior. Situated within the Work–Home Resources Model, the purpose of this study was to investigate (a) whether workplace flexibility, a contextual resource, predicts positive parenting behavior, a home outcome, and (b) whether work–family guilt mediates this relationship. A sample of working mothers with children between the ages of 1 and 18 (N = 302) completed an online survey. Linear regression analyses indicated perceived workplace flexibility predicted overall positive parenting, positive reinforcement, and warmth behaviors in working mothers, but not proactive parenting or supportiveness. Ordinary least squares (OLS) path analyses indicated work–family guilt did not mediate these relationships, but was significantly associated with workplace flexibility, indicating workplace flexibility had a significant negative effect on work–family guilt. The results of this study provide preliminary evidence that mothers’ workplace flexibility may influence positive parenting behaviors; thus, policies that promote flexible work arrangements could promote positive family outcomes and reduce feelings of guilt related to work and family life.

We examine experimentally the extent to which three potential tax authority interventions encourage the reporting of tax fraud to tax authorities and how two types of guilt feelings are involved in this decision. Using a sample of 728 adult taxpayers in the United States, we find that a cash award, a prosocial award and a moral suasion message positively influence whistleblowing intentions and that the moral suasion effect is mediated by intrapsychic guilt (when an individual violates their moral values) and interpersonal guilt (when one's actions cause harm to another). The combination of a cash award and moral suasion message results in the greatest likelihood of tax whistleblowing. Our research contributes to the tax whistleblowing literature by providing evidence of the efficacy of potential interventions and also extends literature on the role of moral emotions by showing the relevance of intrapsychic and interpersonal guilt to the tax fraud reporting decision.

The authors investigated the factors influencing consumer evaluations of advertisements for ethical luxury products that incorporate animal rights and protection concerns. The authors empirically examined how ethical messages influence advertisement persuasiveness through ethical consumer guilt and positively impact consumer evaluations of ethical luxury products. Furthermore, the authors explored the moderating role of consumers’ independent versus interdependent self-construals.

The authors conducted four experimental studies on the interplay among ethicality, luxury brand positioning and self-construal. Moderated mediation analyses revealed that moral emotions were responsible for the effect of ethical luxury advertisements that address animal welfare on brand attitude.

Advertisement messages signaling a luxury brand’s ethical efforts increase empathy through ethical consumer guilt, thereby generating favorable attitudes toward luxury products. However, this effect is limited to consumers with independent self-construal in South Korea and the United States of America.

The authors offer novel insights into the roles of ethical consumer guilt and empathy in the positive effects of ethical messages from luxury brands. Furthermore, the authors identified brand type and self-construal as boundary conditions for the effects observed across different consumer groups and markets.