Shame aversion has been theorized to motivate aggression against the self or others as means of down-regulating shame. Additionally, the direction of aggression may depend on tendencies to attribute blame or causes internally or externally. Data from two separate samples were used to examine shame aversion and its interaction with causal or blame attributions in relation to aggression, controlling for shame-proneness, which is more commonly studied. Results indicated that shame aversion was positively associated with verbal, relational, and passive-rational aggression, as well as with ruminative retribution and non-suicidal self-injury, after accounting for shame-proneness. Most noteworthy, a significant two-way interaction indicated that the association between shame aversion and ruminative retribution (fantasizing about people getting their comeuppance) was particularly strong at high levels of externalization of blame. Findings therefore suggest that although shame-proneness may create situations in which shame regulation strategies are necessary, aggressive fantasies may be used as a regulation strategy when individuals have difficulty tolerating shame and blame others for their circumstances.

羞耻厌恶被理论化为激发对自我或他人的攻击，作为下调羞耻感的手段。此外，攻击的方向可能取决于将责任归咎于内部或外部原因的倾向。来自两个独立样本的数据被用来检查羞耻厌恶及其与攻击相关的因果或责备归因的相互作用，控制更常研究的羞耻倾向。结果表明，考虑到羞耻倾向后，羞耻厌恶与言语、关系和被动-理性攻击以及反刍报复和非自杀性自伤呈正相关。最值得注意的是，显着的双向交互作用表明，羞耻厌恶与沉思报复（幻想人们得到应有的报应）之间的关联在高水平的责备外化时尤为强烈。因此，研究结果表明，虽然羞耻倾向可能会造成需要羞耻调节策略的情况，但当个人难以容忍羞耻并为自己的情况责怪他人时，攻击性幻想可能被用作调节策略。