The feeling of guilt can literally weigh oneself down, a latest study published in the journal PLOS ONE states.
Researchers at the Princeton University and University of Waterloo studied over 400 participants in two separate studies. These participants were asked to rate their offences on a scale of 1-11 and how their body felt at the time. The control group participants were told to recall their ethical memory. Then they compared the two results.
"We found that recalling personal unethical acts led participants to report increased subjective body weights," the study authors wrote. "We also found that this increased sense of weight was related to participants' heightened feelings of guilt and not other negative emotions such as sadness or disgust."
The researchers also looked into other feelings associated with unethical memories. For instance, they were asked whether their wrongdoings would affect good activities like carrying groceries upstairs for someone or giving someone spare change.
The respondents said that tasks that needed physical energy seemed to involve an even greater effort to complete after recalling an unethical memory, but non-physical tasks did not change perception.
"Guilt is important because it plays a role in regulating our moral behavior. It can help us correct our mistakes and prevent future wrongdoing," researchers Dr Romona Bobocel and Martin V. Day said in a press release. "Of course, people know that guilt feels unpleasant and is sometimes associated with feelings of tension and regret."
The results also found that the increased feeling of heaviness was only linked to guilt and no other emotions such as sadness or disgust.
