{"id":225,"date":"2007-01-01T00:00:12","date_gmt":"2006-12-31T23:00:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cognitionandculture.local\/?p=225"},"modified":"2023-07-24T12:59:28","modified_gmt":"2023-07-24T10:59:28","slug":"washing-away-our-sins","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cognitionandculture.local\/blogs\/alphapsy-archives\/washing-away-our-sins\/","title":{"rendered":"Washing away our sins"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A nice paper by Chen-Bo Zhong and Katie Liljenquist in Science [1] about the &#8220;Macbeth effect&#8221; : a threat to one\u2019s moral purity induces the need to wash. This effect revealed itself through an increased mental accessibility of washing-related concepts, a greater desire for cleansing products, and a greater likelihood of taking antiseptic wipes. Furthermore, they show that physical cleansing alleviates the upsetting consequences of unethical behavior and reduces threats to one\u2019s moral self-image.<\/p>\n<p>They note : &#8220;Thus, Lady Macbeth&#8217;s hope that a little bit of water would clear her of the treacherous murder of King Duncan might not have been a product of literary creativity, but of Shakespeare&#8217;s acute understanding of the human psyche. If physical and moral purity are so psychologically intertwined, Lady Macbeth&#8217;s desperate obsession with trying to wash away her bloodied conscience while crying, &#8216;Out, damned spot! Out, I say!&#8217; (Macbeth, act 5, scene 1) may not have been entirely in vain.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Actually, the &#8220;Macbeth Effect&#8221; is an inadequate name, since Lady Macbeth does not alleviate her remorse the slightest bit by washing her hands. We would have coined a &#8220;Pilate Effect&#8221;, which would be more appropriate since by handswashing, Pilate truly gets rid of guilt.<\/p>\n<h6 style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/cognitionandculture.local\/wp-content\/uploads\/Mattia_Preti_-_Pilate_Washing_his_Hands_-_WGA18391.jpeg\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-15408\" src=\"http:\/\/cognitionandculture.local\/wp-content\/uploads\/Mattia_Preti_-_Pilate_Washing_his_Hands_-_WGA18391.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"403\" height=\"450\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cognitionandculture.local\/wp-content\/uploads\/Mattia_Preti_-_Pilate_Washing_his_Hands_-_WGA18391.jpeg 582w, https:\/\/cognitionandculture.local\/wp-content\/uploads\/Mattia_Preti_-_Pilate_Washing_his_Hands_-_WGA18391-269x300.jpeg 269w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 403px) 100vw, 403px\" \/><\/a>Pilate by XVIth cent. painter Preti.<\/h6>\n<p>This is a beautiful work, but we&#8217;d like to see that replicated in different cultures. As it stands now, it can be just another effect of linguistic and cultural habits on people&#8217;s behavior (not that we are defending this interpretation, but you can&#8217;t rule it out).<\/p>\n<p>Possible relationships with OCD and religious ritual, as explored by Boyer and Li\u00e9nart [2], are tantalizing, but more research is needed, in particular, a replication with OCD- subjects.<\/p>\n<p>Practical applications are substantial : &#8220;Given the boost to one&#8217;s moral self afforded by physical cleansing, how might it influence subsequent behavior? Would adherence to a rigorous hygiene regimen facilitate ethical behavior? Or, would cleansing ironically license unethical behavior? It remains to be seen whether clean hands really do make a pure heart, but our studies indicate that they at least provide a clean conscience after moral trespasses&#8221;.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n[1] Zhong, C. B., &amp; Liljenquist, K. (2006). Washing away your sins: Threatened morality and physical cleansing.\u00a0<i>Science<\/i>,\u00a0<i>313<\/i>(5792), 1451-1452.<\/p>\n[2] Li\u00e9nard, P., &amp; Boyer, P. (2006). Whence collective rituals? A cultural selection model of ritualized behavior.\u00a0<i>American Anthropologist<\/i>,\u00a0<i>108<\/i>(4), 814-827.<\/p>\n<p>This post was originally published in 2006 on the Alphapsy blog.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A nice paper by Chen-Bo Zhong and Katie Liljenquist in Science [1] about the &#8220;Macbeth effect&#8221; : a threat to one\u2019s moral purity induces the need to wash. This effect revealed itself through an increased mental accessibility of washing-related concepts, a greater desire for cleansing products, and a greater likelihood of taking antiseptic wipes. Furthermore, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":680,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v15.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Washing away our sins - International Cognition and Culture Institute<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"http:\/\/cognitionandculture.local\/blogs\/alphapsy-archives\/washing-away-our-sins\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Washing away our sins - International Cognition and Culture Institute\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A nice paper by Chen-Bo Zhong and Katie Liljenquist in Science [1] about the &#8220;Macbeth effect&#8221; : a threat to one\u2019s moral purity induces the need to wash. This effect revealed itself through an increased mental accessibility of washing-related concepts, a greater desire for cleansing products, and a greater likelihood of taking antiseptic wipes. 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