In a final study, investigators explored a perceptual consequence of the weight of guilt. In an article titled “The Weight of a Guilty Conscience: Subjective Body Weight as an Embodiment of Guilt” in the journal PLOS ONE, Day and Bobocel find evidence that the emotional experience of guilt can be grounded in subjective bodily sensation. One reason that guilt is important is because of its role in moral and social functioning [7], [8]. The anticipation of feeling guilty in the future may help prevent individuals from participating in immoral acts that violate internalized standards [9], [10]. In phenomenological reports, guilt is characterized not only as feeling badly, but also by feelings of tension and regret [10]. However, we know less about the broad nature of guilt — such as how it interacts with the body and our beliefs about the body.” 
 
 The researchers examined whether guilt is actually embodied as a sensation of weight by using a series of studies which asked students and members of the public to recall a time that they did something unethical. They were told that sometimes people feel more or less weight, and “Compared to your average weight, how much do you feel you weigh right now?” (1 = much less than my average, 6 = exactly my average, 11 = much more than my average). However, those who recalled unethical memories, which can be accompanied by sensations of weight, perceived the physical behaviors to involve even greater effort to complete compared to ratings provided by those in a control condition. Three questions involved physical effort (carrying groceries upstairs for someone, helping someone move, carrying a basket of laundry for someone, α = .75), and three questions involved minimal physical effort (giving someone change, holding an elevator for someone, donating online, α = .71). We found no differences between conditions for the perceived effort of the nonphysical actions,” the researchers said. “From an embodied cognition framework, we predicted that recalling personal unethical acts would imbue feelings of guilt that would be embodied as greater sensations of weight,” the researchers said. The investigators also found that this increased sense of weight was related to participants’ heightened feelings of guilt, and not other negative emotions, such as sadness or disgust. Using the same materials, participants were tested as to whether recall of unethical memories would affect perceived effort to complete a variety of helping behaviors as compared to a control condition. In particular, these findings demonstrate that the emotional experience of guilt can be grounded in subjective bodily sensation. In practice, the researchers found that recalling personal unethical acts led participants to report increased subjective body weight as compared to recalling ethical acts, unethical acts of others or no recall. For example, ethical deeds were rated just as important as unethical actions, but only unethical, guilt-inducing memories led to increased reports of weight. As in the present research, guilt can be evoked by focusing on actions that do not meet internalized standards (e.g., “I engaged in an unethical behavior”), whereas shame tends to be evoked by broad negative self-evaluations (e.g., “I am a terrible person”) [5], [10]. The researchers believe their findings shed light on broader understanding of how humans perceive guilt: 
 
 “Embodied cognition is an emerging field in psychology that examines how our thoughts and emotions interact with our bodies to guide behavior. “Such results are encouraging, and hopefully this emerging line of research will lead us to a more comprehensive understanding of the nature of guilt,” Day and Bobocel said.
– A new study suggests that the phrase "weight of a guilty conscience" has an element of truth to it. Researchers found that people asked to recall their own unethical behavior felt physically heavier when asked to assess their own body weight, reports PsychCentral. (Researchers compared them to people in a control group asked to recall ethical behavior.) The guilt-wracked participants also felt so loagy that the idea of expending a little physical effort to help someone—carrying groceries up stairs, for instance—seemed far more taxing to them than to the non-guilty subjects. "Overall, it was exciting to find these patterns of results, which are consistent with an embodied theory of emotion," say the authors of the study in Plos ONE. "However, this is still relatively new research, and we are still exploring how to more fully characterize the experience of guilt." Of course, not all types of unethical behavior lead to a guilty conscience. A separate study in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology found that cheaters often experience something like a "high" after cheating. But, as the New York Times points out, that "high" is higher if the cheaters don't think they hurt anyone. (On a different note, click to read about how moms are more tired than dads.)