If expressions are universal and innate, what is the expression for shame?
As best as I can determine, shame doesn’t have its own signal. And neither does guilt. They’re very hard to reliably distinguish from the family of emotions: sadness, disappointment, grief, discouragement, and anguish. It’s not that I think shame and guilt are the same; it’s just that they are the same in signal. Now, if I was an evolutionary psychologist, I could make up a story as to why shame wouldn’t have evolved its own signal. The last thing you want when you’re ashamed is for others to know you’re ashamed, because if they discover it, they will be disgusted with you. Guilt is about an action: I can undo guilt by confessing, by doing penance of various kinds. You can excuse guilt. But disgust is about the person. And you’re never going to forgive me if you really are going to be disgusted—you’re going to want to get away from me. Shame is a response to prevent the other person’s disgust, and there is a lot of self-disgust intermingled with that shame.
