How Culture and Language Shape Apologies, Guilt and Shame

People in different cultures may say sorry in different ways.

An apology can show how someone thinks about responsibility and relationships.

Guilt means thinking, “I did something wrong,” while shame means thinking, “Something is wrong with me.”

Guilt often encourages people to fix the problem.

Shame can make people hide or avoid the situation.

Researchers studied Korean speakers learning Spanish and Spanish speakers learning Korean.

Korean participants often clearly accepted blame, while Spanish participants more often explained what happened.

People felt stronger guilt and shame in their first language when apologising to someone important, such as a professor.

This shows that learning a language also means learning how emotions and apologies work in that culture.