Can「される」mean「させられる」?

Question

Recently, I looked up「気が引ける」in 旺文社国語辞典

きがひける【気が引ける】

うしろめたい感じがして気おくれする。遠慮される。

It's odd to me that「遠慮する」is written in passive. I thought it was a typo at first then it occurred to me this「される」can be understood as「させられる」. Is that right?

Answer 1

This される does not have the passive meaning. It's a less common usage of (ら)れる known as 自発 ("spontaneous").

• Why is the passive form used in this sentence?
• Is there a reason why the passive and the potential form are identical (at least for える/いる verbs)?

So this 遠慮される means something along the lines of なんとなく遠慮したい気持ちになる ("to spontaneously feel like refraining"). 遠慮させられる is different because it means some external pressure is making you to do 遠慮.