A new study has shown that people feel morally cleansed when
they are physically clean and as such are more inclined to judge
others more harshly. The study, first reported by the British
Psychological Society, has the somewhat Victorian-sounding title
of ‘A clean self can render harsh moral judgement’. It was
authored by Chen-Bo Zhong, Brendan Strejcek and Niro Sivanathan,
and it appears in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology.
Some 58 undergrads were invited to a lab filled with
scrupulously clean equipment. Some students were told to
disinfect their hands to avoid dirtying the surfaces. Afterwards
all the students rated the morality of six societal issues --
smoking, illegal drug use, pornography, profane language,
littering and adultery -- on an 11-point scale ranging from very
moral to very immoral. Those who’d wiped their hands made far
harsher judgements than those who didn’t. “Participants who
cleansed their hands before rating the social issues judged
these issues to be more morally wrong co