The strong historical association between shame, guilt and pleasure might help to explain a number of paradoxical human behaviours, as well as the historical preference for formulating scientific research questions in terms of behaviour rather than pleasure and other hedonic feelings.

Siri Leknes and Irene Tracey, ‘A Common Neurobiology for Pain and Pleasure’, Nature Reviews Neuroscience, vol. 9, no. 4 (April, 2008), p. 315