People with financial problems avoid contact with their creditors. This hinders resolving their problematic situation. One likely cause for this, is experienced shame. Since shame seems to play an...Show morePeople with financial problems avoid contact with their creditors. This hinders resolving their problematic situation. One likely cause for this, is experienced shame. Since shame seems to play an important role in this, we propose using the Shame Resilience Theory (Brown, 2006) to increase the willingness of debtors to contact their creditors for help. In this study, a real creditor letter is adapted to create four conditions. The first condition is the standard creditor letter. In the second condition participants are given more control. In the third condition feelings of being trapped by their situation are reduced. In the fourth condition both interventions are combined. We also hypothesized a possible moderating effect of gender. The willingness to contact the creditor was measured for each condition. In line with the hypotheses, we found that both the increased power condition and the reduced feeling trapped condition scored significantly higher on willingness to contact when compared to the control condition. The combined condition did not score better compared to using either one of the interventions, but did significantly differ to the control condition, which was as hypothesized. The reducing feelings of being trapped intervention only worked for women, not for men. Combining both interventions also did not work for the male sample. Exploring these gender differences is new and further research into them are necessary.Show less
Over 600,000 households in the Netherlands are facing financial difficulties due to debt, which often causes feelings of shame and leads to avoiding creditors. This study looked at ways to help a...Show moreOver 600,000 households in the Netherlands are facing financial difficulties due to debt, which often causes feelings of shame and leads to avoiding creditors. This study looked at ways to help a debtor contact their respective creditor. The researchers wanted to see if increasing debtors’ resilience to shame would make them more willing to contact their creditors. Therefore, first of all, was hypothesized that increasing individuals’ sense of power and decreasing feelings of being trapped will result in a higher willingness to contact a creditor compared to the baseline condition. Additionally, there was hypothesized that the combined intervention condition, incorporating both enhanced power and reduced feelings of being trapped, would be more effective than either intervention alone. Finally, age was explored as a potential factor within the relationship between shame resilience and willingness. The researchers tested this by assigning participants (n = 267) randomly to one of four groups: baseline, power, feeling trapped, or a combined intervention. In each condition, participants received a tailored creditor email designed to elicit feelings of increased power, reduced feelings of being trapped, or a combination of both. In contrast, the baseline condition involved a standard creditor email. Subsequently, participants were asked to indicate their willingness to initiate contact with the creditor agency. The results showed that increasing people's sense of power and reducing feelings of being trapped led to a greater willingness to contact creditors compared to the baseline group. However, the combined intervention did not have a greater effect than the separate interventions. Overall, the findings suggest that increasing people's sense of power and reducing feelings of being trapped can enhance their resilience to shame and increase their willingness to contact creditors to address financial issues.Show less
In dit onderzoek is er gekeken naar hoe vermijdende neigingen geassocieerd met schaamte omgebogen kunnen worden tot meer probleemgerichte neigingen. Er is gefocust op een interventie die betrekking...Show moreIn dit onderzoek is er gekeken naar hoe vermijdende neigingen geassocieerd met schaamte omgebogen kunnen worden tot meer probleemgerichte neigingen. Er is gefocust op een interventie die betrekking heeft op de communicatie van schuldeisers richting hun cliënten. Het doel hiervan was het vergroten van de bereidheid tot contact. Deze interventie werd uitgevoerd door het manipuleren van componenten van schaamte; machteloosheid, verstikking en isolatie, gebaseerd op de schaamte veerkracht theorie van Brown (2016). Uit de componenten van schaamte werden vier condities opgesteld. Een controle conditie, waar geen manipulatie heeft plaatsgevonden, een conditie waar verstikking is verminderd, een conditie waar macht is verhoogd en een conditie waar verstikking is verminderd en macht is verhoogd. Uit de resultaten bleek, zoals verwacht, dat participanten in de interventie waar macht was gemanipuleerd meer controle over de situatie ervaarden en daardoor sneller bereid waren om tot contact te komen, vergeleken met de controlegroep en groepen waar andere interventies uitgevoerd waren. De eerste hypothese veronderstelde dat het verminderen van gevoelens van verstikking zal leiden tot een verhoging van de bereidheid tot contact vergeleken met de controlegroep, de hypothese niet aangenomen. De tweede hypothese veronderstelde dat het vergroten van ervaren macht zal leiden tot een verhoging van bereidheid tot contact, vergeleken met de controlegroep. Deze hypothese is wel bevestigd, er is een significant verschil gevonden in het verschil van ervaren macht tussen de controlegroep en de groep waar ervaren macht was vergroot. De derde hypothese stelde dat het verminderen van gevoelens van verstikking en het vergroten van ervaren macht zal leiden tot een verhoging van de bereidheid tot contact, vergeleken met de controlegroep. Hoewel er een trend is gevonden, is het effect niet significant en is de hypothese niet aangenomen. De vierde hypothese stelde dat het vergroten van ervaren macht en het verminderen van gevoelens van verstikking zal leiden tot een hogere bereidheid tot het leggen van contact, tegenover een interventie waar alleen het verminderen van gevoelens van verstikking is toegepast of waar ervaren macht is vergroot het effect was niet significant en de hypothese is niet aangenomen. Uit dit onderzoek hebben we kunnen concluderen dat het vergroten van ervaren macht de bereidheid tot contact vergroot in de communicatie van schuldeisers tot schuldenaars.Show less
De schaamte die schuldenaren ervaren door schuldproblematiek resulteert vaak in een vermijdende houding. In dit onderzoek werd aan de hand van de componenten van de Schaamte Veerkracht Theorie...Show moreDe schaamte die schuldenaren ervaren door schuldproblematiek resulteert vaak in een vermijdende houding. In dit onderzoek werd aan de hand van de componenten van de Schaamte Veerkracht Theorie onderzocht hoe deze vermijdende houding omgezet kon worden in een houding die gericht is op het oplossen van problemen. Er waren vier condities opgesteld aan de hand van deze componenten, die elk verschillende interventies toepasten op brieven van schuldeisers. Er deden 182 participanten mee van 18 tot 85 jaar oud, die allemaal aangaven ervaring te hebben met schuldproblematiek. Elke participant kreeg één van de vier condities te zien, waarna er een vragenlijst werd afgenomen om de bereidheid tot contact te meten. Er werd verwacht dat zowel een interventie op machteloosheid als een interventie op verstikking een positiever effect zouden hebben op de bereidheid tot het zoeken van contact, vergeleken met de controle conditie. Ook werd er verwacht dat een interactie tussen een interventie op machteloosheid en verstikking een positiever effect zou hebben op de bereidheid tot het zoeken van contact, vergeleken met de controleconditie, de interventie op machteloosheid en de interventie op verstikking. Resultaten toonden aan dat de interventie gericht op het verminderen van machteloosheid als enige van de interventies een significant effect had op de bereidheid tot het zoeken van contact door de participanten. Hierdoor wordt de vermijdende houding die voortkomt uit schuld omgezet tot een oplossingsgerichte houding.Show less
Recent studies showed that financial hardship is often accompanied with experiencing shame and avoidance of contact with creditors. The shame resilience theory (Brown, 2006) states that shame is...Show moreRecent studies showed that financial hardship is often accompanied with experiencing shame and avoidance of contact with creditors. The shame resilience theory (Brown, 2006) states that shame is strongly intertwined with the experience of powerlessness and feeling trapped. The aim of this study is to investigate whether reducing these feelings can increase one’s shame resilience and whether this affects one’s willingness to contact a creditor. This is done by manipulating letters of creditors. Each condition gets to read a different letter. There is a control condition which gets to read a standard letter, a powerlessness condition in which the experience of powerlessness is addressed, a feeling trapped condition in which the experience of feeling trapped is addressed and an interaction condition in which both components are addressed. Results show that willingness to contact is greater in the powerlessness condition compared to the control condition. The other two conditions showed no significant difference compared to the control condition.Show less
Many people will have to deal with financial problems such as debts at some point in their lives. Shame can make financial problems worse, because shame leads to avoidance of all information...Show moreMany people will have to deal with financial problems such as debts at some point in their lives. Shame can make financial problems worse, because shame leads to avoidance of all information surrounding these financial problems. Therefore, in this study, an intervention was done to increase shame resilience. The research question that was attempted to be answered is: 'Does increasing shame resilience affect willingness to contact the creditor?' To measure this, an online questionnaire was administered to 189 participants between the ages of 18 and 75. There were four different conditions. First, the control condition, which stated that the debtor still had to pay money and when this had to be done. Second, the powerlessness condition, in which several options were offered if they could not pay. Third, the condition of feeling trapped which stated that the debtors were not alone, that the debtors could also contact the creditor if they were ashamed and the statement that being in debt is okay. Fourth, there was an interaction condition in which increasing the sense of power and decreasing the feeling of being trapped were combined. The study found that a heightened sense of power led to a greater willingness to contact the creditor. In addition, a reduced sense of being trapped did not lead to a greater willingness to contact. The interaction condition also did not lead to a greater willingness to contact.Show less
