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moral psychology
Your moral judgment is tied to your physical hygiene.
A 2006 study showed that recalling your own unethical behavior increases your desire for physical cleansing products.
Researchers observed that participants who reflected on a personal moral transgression were significantly more likely to prefer antiseptic wipes over pencils. This suggests that the brain maps the concept of moral purity onto physical cleanliness.
You may try to scrub away your bad decisions.
Where this comes from
- Study
- Zhong and Liljenquist, 2006, Science
- What the check found
- The study 'Washing Away Your Sins: Threatened Morality and Physical Cleansing' by Zhong and Liljenquist was published in Science in 2006 and confirmed the described finding in its initial experiment.
- Confidence
- Well replicated
Related
One of these every day, and every one names the study it came from. When a finding is contested, it says so.