This episode of DNews is brought to you by Harry’s.[a]
Cleanliness is close to Godliness, or so those Midwestern Mom's used to tell me, but does
that mean dirtiness is close to devilishness?
Yep.
It does.
Thanks, science!
My mother HATES it when people aren't clean in movies.
Seriously, during Lord of the Rings, she liked it at the beginning, but as they went on was
all like, "Why can't they just take a bath?
They're all so dirty!"
It's a running joke at home, but science seems to indicate she might have tapped into a little
piece of human nature.
A new study published in Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes found the simple
act of being clean promotes ethical behavior, while being disgusted will make us lie and
cheat.
The emotion disgust is a complicated one, its roots are in revulsion, unpleasantness,
and can be tied to some phobias and anxiety disorders.
When people feel disgust, according to the findings of this study, they'll try and protect
themselves and their logical brain doesn't interfere -- it's a self-protection instinct.
According to their findings, this instinct lets normally ethical people lie to protect
themselves; or, in the case of their experiments, for financial gain.
They figured the best way to avoid revulsion, would be to introduce them to cleaning products
and cleanliness -- and it worked.
In people who were asked to evaluate cleaning products, or just to think about cleanliness,
the disgust was diminished and they didn't lie as much.
This isn't the first study into emotions affecting decision-making.
A 2009 study in Psychological Science found people whose office smells cleaner will be
more ethical too!
Because the office workers feel more comfortable and all they did in that study was spritz
the room with window cleaner.
It even increased interest in charitable donation with 22-percent of those in the "clean" room
expressing interest as opposed to six percent in normal room.
We'd love to see our decisions as independent from outside influence, but that doesn't seem
to be the case at ALL.
And it's not just smelling clean or thinking about cleanliness.
A study done at the University of Amsterdam in 2009 found people who held heavy clipboards
took things more seriously than those holding light ones.
They literally gave more WEIGHT to things.
Not even a metaphor!
// I mean, it is a metaphor… but…
Sitting in a dimly lit place, or wearing even sunglasses, can ALSO affect our decision-making.
Another study by the same researchers found people in a dimly lit room would lie about
how many tasks they've completed in order to get a larger monetary reward.
Being shrouded makes people feel anonymous, and that anonymity makes people less ethical
and more self-interested as well!
This all makes me think of dirty, dim bars and how much debauchery goes on there.
Maybe for reasons related to these studies?!
Opposed to that... those super-clean rooms of the future make me feel a bit uneasy, like…
i'm too unethical for that!
Maybe mom had it right all along, in another, related study, the same researchers determined
that people who had just done something unethical felt physically dirty and cleansing themselves
made them feel better…
so maybe I should go shower.
Thanks, Mom.
Speaking of grooming, it is currently the month of Movember.
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Thanks again Harry's.
Have you ever noticed these mental biases?
Are you going to find the darkest.
dirtiest bar you can think of this weekend?