Drinking too much and feeling bad about it? How group identification moderates experiences of guilt and shame following norm transgression.

The role of reference group norms in self-regulation was examined from the perspective of transgressions. Results from four studies suggest that following the transgression of a reference group's norms, individuals who strongly identify with their group report more intense feelings of guilt, an emotion reflecting an inference that "bad" behaviors are perceived as the cause of the transgression. Conversely, weakly identified individuals reported more intense feelings of shame, an emotion reflecting an inference that "bad" characteristics of the person are perceived as the cause of the transgression.