Guilt focuses on actions, while shame attacks your worth. Learn about the roots of these emotions, and how they are shaped by ...

Although shame and guilt may seem similar, shame is highly correlated with addiction, depression, and aggression. In contrast, guilt is linked to empathy and understanding other perspectives.

While guilt is associated with morality, shame is not. You feel guilt for murdering a nasty money-lender with an ax, at least if you’re in a novel by Dostoevsky.

While guilt is acknowledging and feeling bad that you did something you should not have, shame is internalizing guilt and believing that you, yourself are bad because of the bad things you have done.

Overall, expressions of guilt and shame were associated with recidivism rates, but in different ways. "Proneness to guilt predicts less recidivism — a lower likelihood of re-offense," Tangney says.

The trick is to leverage things like guilt and shame to keep you focused on the end goal and lose that weight. Tim Grahl runs Out:think, a firm that helps authors sell a lot of books.

Overall, expressions of guilt and shame were associated with recidivism rates, but in different ways. "Proneness to guilt predicts less recidivism -- a lower likelihood of re-offense," Tangney says.