Answer:
Researchers asked Catholics to donate to the March of Dimes either when they were on their way into church for confession, or when they were on their way out. In support of the argument that guilt influences compliance, results revealed that people donated more money before their confession.
Explanation:
The effects of guilt on behavior have been studied over the years. A 1969 study by Carlsmith and Gross showed that people try to wash their guilt away by complying with whom they feel guilty about.
The March of Dimes is a nonprofit organization founded by president Franklin D. Roosevelt that aims to provide care and relief for pregnant women, mothers, and babies. In this experiment, the researchers guilted some of the subjects into donating money to the March of Dimes on their way into church for confession, probably by relating to them stories about how hard the mothers helped by this organization have it. This resulted into more money being given for the organization, as people tried to wash their guilt away through donations in order to have a clean conscience before confession.