Guilt

Guilt is a powerful thing. Even Dr. House the crazy guy who doesn't care about anyone can feel it. He almost helped a guy pay off his mortgage because he felt guilty for making someone he went to school with fail out. But technically he didn't and the guy was lying because he wanted to get House to give him money.

Even on Better Off Ted, the character of Veronica who also is a boss and doesn't care about anyone else can get hit by guilt. She thought that she had gotten her job as CEO because of a fluke and when she found out that the guy who didn't get the job was now working at the bottom of the job chain, she feels guilty. She takes him out to dinner and lets him... do stuff to her.

People know how to exploit others and guilt is one of the easiest ways to do it. When someone feels guilty, they will do pretty much anything to get rid of that feeling. Nobody likes feeling guilty. When our conscience feels guilty, we fully believe that something is our fault even if it may not be at all. And when we ask for forgiveness for something, it so happens that some most humans are greedy and selfish enough to try and exploit you in your time of mental unrest. In House's case, he tries to give money to stop feeling guilty. He doesn't want to talk with the guy or do anything personal, he just wants to get the guilty feeling to go away.

When people feel guilty they'll do just about anything to get rid of it. They want forgiveness and then they do everything they can to get it. It's a form of psychological manipulation. "Guilt tripping: A special kind of intimidation tactic. A manipulator suggests to the conscientious victim that he or she does not care enough, is too selfish or has it easy. This usually results in the victim feeling bad, keeping them in a self-doubting, anxious and submissive position." (Wikipedia). Certain people are able to do this to people in order to fulfill their agenda and it is pretty affective. Anyways, guilt is something no one wants and yet a lot of times it is self-created anyways. We can feel guilty over something we couldn't even control in the first place.

“Guilt is the source of sorrow, 'tis the fiend, Th' avenging fiend, that follows us behind, With whips and stings”   -Nicholas Rowe