On Shame, Sense of  Belongingness, and Willingness  to Accept Financial Help

Negative financial situations such as debt or poverty affect the individual on the material level, as well as on the perceptions of the self, inducing social and mental health struggles. Financially dire situations can result in feelings of shame, impacting the chances of the individual reaching our for help. We investigate whether inducing shame resilience in people facing debt can increase the willingness to contact a creditor for financial help. Hypothesizing that shame resilience and a sense of belongingness can increase this willingness to contact, we conducted an online survey and measured recall in two conditions: the manipulation condition where a creditor email primes shame resilience, and a control condition consisting of a standard email, then we measured the willingness to contact the creditor company in each group. The results showed that after reading the manipulation condition email which gave reassurance about feeling shameful for one’s financial situation,...Show moreNegative financial situations such as debt or poverty affect the individual on the material level, as well as on the perceptions of the self, inducing social and mental health struggles. Financially dire situations can result in feelings of shame, impacting the chances of the individual reaching our for help. We investigate whether inducing shame resilience in people facing debt can increase the willingness to contact a creditor for financial help. Hypothesizing that shame resilience and a sense of belongingness can increase this willingness to contact, we conducted an online survey and measured recall in two conditions: the manipulation condition where a creditor email primes shame resilience, and a control condition consisting of a standard email, then we measured the willingness to contact the creditor company in each group. The results showed that after reading the manipulation condition email which gave reassurance about feeling shameful for one’s financial situation, participants were more likely to contact the company for financial help compared to the control condition. These significant results suggest that working towards building shame resilience can be a great tool to utilize in future research where the relationship between shame and seeking out financial help is measured.Show less

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On Shame, Sense of Belongingness, and Willingness to Accept Financial Help