Can Shaming Educate? Based on Empirical Evidence From China and the United States

• In Event: Poster Session 12
  In Poster Session: New Directions for Research in Moral Development and Moral Education

Abstract

Shaming, the practice that aims to elicit shame in another, is ubiquitous in both China and the United States. Contrary to the mainstream belief in the U.S., a few researchers claim that, in Chinese culture, shaming can motivate self-improvement and promote children’s moral growth. In this paper, I argue that this cultural difference is largely caused by the methodological issues in those pro-shaming studies, as well as by an omission of extant empirical evidence found in China that suggests the opposite. By reviewing and analyzing research evidence from both China and the U.S., I conclude that shaming as a parenting practice imposes harm and has no warrant for the educative outcomes that are suggested by prior studies.

Author

• Qian Wang, University of California - Berkeley