Individual differences in guilt proneness affect how people respond to moral tradeoffs between harm avoidance and obedience to authority

High guilt proneness was associated with valuing harm avoidance more than obedience to authority on questionnaires (Study 1). Results from a laboratory study suggest that people high in guilt proneness, but not those low in guilt proneness, disobeyed an experimenter to prevent a confederate from suffering through an unpleasant task (Study 2). The present research highlights the role of guilt proneness in moral decision making.