Who Is Owed? Privilege-Based Guilt and the Allocation of Moral Responsibilities

This study explores the role of privilege-based guilt, a moral emotion elicited by the perception of possessing unearned advantages, as a condition that shapes how individuals determine who deserves moral consideration. Using a nationally representative survey of charitable cause preferences, I test its effects across multiple domains of social difference. Across three domains—race, income, and nativity—individuals from structurally advantaged groups who report privilege-based guilt are more likely to prioritize charitable causes that benefit disadvantaged outgroups, while structurally marginalized individuals who report guilt are less likely to prioritize causes that benefit recipients within their own identity group. While individuals typically default to supporting socially proximate ingroups, guilt neutralizes this effect to statistical nonsignificance. The findings suggest privilege-based guilt operates as a stratified moral motivator: It redirects helping behavior in directions that vary by the actor's structural position, functioning as a corrective force against the specific inequalities that privilege them.