Consumer Guilt and Shame Scale

What it measures

Measures two distinct moral emotions in consumer contexts: guilt (feeling bad about a specific behaviour — e.g., overspending, unhealthy eating, impulse buying) and shame (feeling bad about oneself as a consumer — e.g., feeling like a bad person for one's consumption choices). Guilt and shame have different consequences — guilt motivates corrective behaviour while shame motivates avoidance and disengagement.

Response format

Likert (1–7, strongly disagree to strongly agree)

Scale items

Consumer Guilt — feeling responsible for a transgression related to consumption (Likert 1–7, strongly disagree to strongly agree)

• I feel guilty about buying this product.
• I feel bad about having purchased this.
• My conscience bothers me about this purchase.
• I feel remorse for buying this product.
• I feel I should not have bought this.

Consumer Shame — feeling of personal inadequacy or public exposure related to consumption

• I would be embarrassed if others knew I bought this.
• I feel ashamed about this purchase.
• Buying this product makes me feel inferior.
• I feel humiliated by this purchase.
• I feel that this purchase reflects badly on me.

Full scale items shown. Always cite the original source when using this scale in research.

Usage notes & scoring

Two subscale scores. Guilt motivates return, complaint, and corrective purchase behaviour; shame motivates avoidance, brand switching, and disengagement. Particularly relevant in research on indulgent consumption, unhealthy food choices, luxury guilt, and ethical consumption failures. Guilt appeals in advertising are effective up to a point — excessive guilt reduces ad effectiveness.

Recommended companion scales

Citation

Quimby, J.L., & Rapp, J.M. (2018). Consumer guilt: Scale development and preliminary findings. Journal of Business Research, 107, 236–247.

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