Illegitimacy perception is necessary but not sufficient to drive guilt intensity variation.

Evidence

The important point is although judgments of illegitimacy are a precondition for guilt, variation in illegitimacy judgments does not explain the variability in guilt in this particular sample. — Michael T. Schmitt, Daniel A. Miller, Nyla R. Branscombe, and Jack W. Brehm, The Difficulty of Making Reparations…, 86

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: The intuition of contingency is not identical with a feeling of guilt.; Guilt over prejudice arises only in people who internalize egalitarian standards; Low-prejudice people experience compunction when their behavior contradicts their egalitarian standards (+1 more)

Related

• Only people with internalized nonprejudiced standards feel guilt over their actual prejudiced responses (similarity 0.83)
• Guilt works as motivation whose intensity tracks the cost of required action. (similarity 0.81)
• Guilt from prejudice-standards violation occurs only in people committed to nonprejudiced values (similarity 0.79)
• Guilt is deeply unpleasant because it threatens one’s self-image as good (similarity 0.79)
• Guilt is presumed to motivate people to control their prejudiced responses (similarity 0.78)

Broader Connections

• The intuition of contingency is not identical with a feeling of guilt. #expands (0.82)
• Guilt requires self-categorizing as a group member #expands (0.75) — Torsten Masson and Markus Barth, The identification-guilt paradox…, 20
• Guilt over prejudice arises only in people who internalize egalitarian standards #qualifies (0.72)
• Low-prejudice people experience compunction when their behavior contradicts their egalitarian standards #qualifies (0.72)