The Calamitous Crush of Prosocial Shame

In Chapter 7 of How Shame Runs the World, I explore How Shame Shapes Society using an example of what I call “prosocial” shame. Prosocial shame is shame put to work for constructive, positive purpose. It’s shame employed to correct a problem rather than to cause or worsen one (though this depends on your perspective, as you’ll learn when you read Chapter 7). I’ll use an example from history to explain.

In the early 1950s, United States Senator Joseph McCarthy instigated a long, fraudulent effort to root out communist insurgents inside the U.S. government. His malicious, unwarranted campaign (called McCarthyism) accused honorable, innocent citizens of being Communist traitors and cost thousands of Americans their jobs, public reputations, and sometimes their lives. Though it soon became evident that there were no communist insurgents to root out, the senator continued his horrendous defamations for years.

Thanks to escalating pressure from public and governmental opinion, McCarthy’s heinous deeds finally caught up with him. In June 1954, he was prosocially shamed in the most public of ways during a live television broadcast of Senate hearings about him. Senate Chief Counsel of the United States Army Joseph Welch crushed the senator’s villainous ways by exclaiming, “Until this moment, Senator, I think I never really gauged your cruelty or your recklessness…You’ve done enough. Have you no sense of decency, Sir, at long last? Have you left no sense of decency?” In this instant, Welch became an impromptu spokesman for our nation’s populace. Over 20 million Americans looked on from their homes as this remarkable moment of therapeutic, prosocial, public shaming took place.  

Within six months, McCarthy was formally condemned by the U.S. Senate. Though he remained a senator, his speeches echoed off the walls of an almost-empty Senate chamber. The press lost all interest in him. Speaking engagements disappeared. As the coda of his denunciation, President Dwight Eisenhower japed to his Cabinet, “McCarthyism” is now “McCarthywasm.” The calamitous crush of prosocial shame obliterated McCarthy’s anti-American agenda.

The fate of California Representative Eric Swalwell on April 12, 2026 has the ring of history repeating itself. After being publicly accused of sexual misconduct by multiple women, Swalwell abruptly ended his campaign for California governor and resigned his House seat. His political endorsers, funding sources, and staff members immediately decamped, bolting from the scene. He awkwardly exited the race after a statutory deadline to withdraw from election had passed, leaving his name on the June 2, 2026 primary ballot, likely befuddling any voters left unaware at the polls that he’s no longer in the race. Political strategist Marva Diaz says his exit has “caused…confusion….I’ve never seen something so much in flux while ballots are about to drop.” (“Swalwell’s exit from California governor’s race leaves Democratic field in disarray,” Imperial Valley Press, April 16, 2026.) Prosocial shame was at work again.

The immense impacts of prosocial shame can materialize in seconds. A person’s public reputation, social connections, family relationships, and a whole career can be wiped out in an instant of prosocial shaming.  

But let’s take a closer look at the two examples I’ve just presented. In the 1950s, an ongoing escalation of disagreement, chastisement, discord, vitriol, protest, suffering, and hatred had to develop against McCarthy’s acts before a moment of prosocial shame could effectively bring him down. Likewise, in Swalwell’s case. Many MeToo-type legal cases; dozens of courtrooms full of enraged, courageous, outspoken women; and years of anguish for the likes of Anita Hill, Christine Blasey Ford, and at least 28 accusers of Trump had to be held up for public scrutiny–painfully, repeatedly, doggedly–until our country was ready to pay as much serious attention to men’s misdeeds as to women’s reactions to those misdeeds. (See Chapter 18, Decoding Shame in Relationships and the Vanishing Act.)

Only after years of public indignation, pressure, and protest that exposed the problem of men's sexual abuse of women could the cumulative force of prosocial shame slide like an avalanche, crushing Swalwell in moments.

What an important lesson this is for each of us about the power of unity, patience, persistence–and the judicious use of prosocial shame–in taking public action.