Understanding internal and external shame in childhood: the role of theory of mind

Abstract

Shame can be either internal or external. The former type of shame is associated with what one thinks and feels about one’s self, the latter is linked with what one believes that others think about the self. This study aimed to (a) compare children’s ability to understand these two types of shame and (b) test the hypothesis that only external shame attribution is linked to children’s ability to understand second-order beliefs. Four- to 6-year-old children (N = 93) were presented with a task assessing their ability to attribute internal and external shame to story protagonists. Children were also tested on a battery of first-order and second-order theory of mind tasks. The results provide evidence for a parallel age-related increase in children’s understanding of the two types of shame. In line with our hypothesis, only external, but not internal, shame attribution was associated with children’s ability to understand others’ second-order beliefs.

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