Washing Away Your Sins: Threatened Morality and Physical Cleansing

Abstract

Physical cleansing has been a focal element in religious ceremonies for thousands of years. The prevalence of this practice suggests a psychological association between bodily purity and moral purity. In three studies, we explored what we call the "Macbeth effect"-that is, a threat to one's moral purity induces the need to cleanse oneself. This effect revealed itself through an increased mental accessibility of cleansing-related concepts, a greater desire for cleansing products, and a greater likelihood of taking antiseptic wipes. Furthermore, we showed that physical cleansing alleviates the upsetting consequences of unethical behavior and reduces threats to one's moral self-image. Daily hygiene routines such as washing hands, as simple and benign as they might seem, can deliver a powerful antidote to threatened morality, enabling people to truly wash away their sins.

Moral masochism: On the connection between guilt and self-punishment.

“…Because each of these actions is aimed at achieving the same goal of relief from self-recrimination, it is possible that they could serve as substitutes for one another. There is some evidence for the interchangeability of these actions already- Zhong and Liljenquist (2006) showed that that washing one's hands after recalling a bad deed diminished participants' willingness to help a needy student. If the different ways of dampening self-recrimination all work to some degree, are some means preferred over others?…”

“…There were no significant differences for the other three emotions, all ps > .19. 3 In an effort to reduce suspicion, we asked participants to write about a time they had done something unethical (see Zhong & Liljenquist, 2006), rather than the time they felt "most guilty. "…”

“…While holding one's hand in cold water causes physical pain, it might also be construed as cleansing, which has also been shown to be motivated by feelings of guilt (Zhong & Liljenquist, 2006).…”

Just a Game? Unjustified Virtual Violence Produces Guilt in Empathetic Players

“…While both questionnaires mixed guilt items with other items, an explicit measure of guilt may induce suspicion in participants and thus trigger demand characteristics or social desirability effects (Schwarz & Oyserman, 2004). Future studies should also incorporate implicit measures of guilt (Zhong & Liljenquist, 2006). Additionally, retrospective questionnaires may be prone to bias, particularly when seeking to assess the intensity or frequency of human experiences (Schwarz & Oyserman, 2004).…”

Abstract Concepts in Grounded Cognition

“…Other studies have revealed that morality and cleanliness are strongly related. Thinking about an unethical deed makes cleaning related words more accessible and reading an unethical story increases the desire for cleaning related products (Zhong & Liljenquist, 2006). Activating the concept of cleanliness before reading moral dilemmas, as well as washing ones hands after seeing a disgusting movie clip, reduces the severity of moral judgments (Schnall, Benton, & Harvey, 2008).…”