Modern research has proven a striking, almost unconscious relationship between physical sensations, actions, emotions and abstract judgments.
The world around us imperceptibly, but totally – through colors and smells, temperature and texture of objects – influences our actions, which we seem to deliberately perform, and assessments, which we seem to distribute without prejudice. Recognizing this fact is not easy.
Indeed, who among us, when making our judgment about a new acquaintance, takes into account the fact that under the influence of cold temperature we are more inclined to consider a person cold? Who knows that the softness of the chair we sit on can affect our style of negotiation and thus change their outcome? And about the fact that a lit lamp will literally help you “shed light on the problem”? Talma Loubel, a famous Israeli psychologist and professor at the Faculty of Psychology at Tel Aviv University, has collected in one book all modern research proving an amazing, almost unconscious relationship between physical sensations , actions, emotions and abstract judgments.
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- Drink more water!
While this book with the uncomplicated title “A Warm Cup on a Cold Day” is being prepared for publication by Alpina Publisher, we will talk about one of the studies included by Talma Lobel in her book.
To wash or not to wash?
We are constantly in a situation of choice: we decide what to buy, where to go, with whom to enter into close relationships, where to live, which doctor to go to, what education to choose for ourselves or children. The choice between two options is sometimes difficult, and life dictates the need to make a decision, and we must obey. Nevertheless, the second option – which we have abandoned – still haunts us. What if we did make a mistake? To free ourselves from this cognitive dissonance, we unconsciously begin to look for arguments in favor of the chosen option as opposed to the rejected one and convince ourselves that we made the best choice (although in reality both have their advantages and disadvantages). Meanwhile, ordinary water can save us from this cognitive dissonance. It literally washes away our memory of the events of the past that made us worry. This has been proven by psychologists at the University of Michigan*. The essence of one of their experiments was as follows. The researchers gave the participants a stack of music discs and asked each participant to rank them in order of preference (number 1 being the most favorite). In gratitude for their participation, volunteers were offered a disk numbered either 5 or 6 as a gift.
After completing the task, half of the participants, at the request of the organizers, washed their hands, while the other half only looked at the bottle of liquid soap. The researchers then asked the volunteers to re-arrange the same discs in order of preference. Those who didn’t wash their hands rated the chosen disc higher than before. But those who washed their hands did not change their mind: they did not feel the need to justify their choice and place the selected disk in the list above the rejected one. So an elementary action – washing hands – destroyed the influence of the previous choice. Scientists call this the clean slate effect. It turns out that the feeling of discomfort associated with our decision ceases to influence our subsequent choice, even after minimal cleansing.
Further experiments by the social psychologist Norbert Schwartz and his colleagues only confirmed the results of this curious relationship. For example, they also found that handwashing affects our willingness to take risks. Namely, the previous experience of success or failure (winning or losing) is not reflected in the willingness to take risks in those who have just washed their hands**.
* S. Lee & N. Schwarz «Washing away postdecisional dissonance».Science, 2010, 328 (5979), 709–709.** A. Xu et al. «Washing away your (goodor bad) luck: Physical cleansing affects risk-taking behavior». Journal of ExperimentalPsychology: General, 2012, 141 (1), 26–30.
It turns out that in a short time frame, ablution or purification can significantly affect the next action and the decision made. Physical cleansing can literally destroy the psychological traces of immediate past events so that they no longer affect our actions. Major episodes of life are not so easy to erase, but small daily activities are more susceptible to such influence, and we can control them through physical cleansing.
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- Who is afraid of water?
notice connections
The experience of our daily activities constantly and continuously influences our decisions, reactions and feelings. For example, positive impressions of one event can easily influence how we behave in the next event, even if the two situations are unrelated. We all have happy days and unhappy days, days of good impressions and days of bad impressions, days of success and days of failure – and our decisions and actions chronologically close to them are influenced by the experience gained during such days. We can perceive the same situation or action differently and come to different decisions just because we will be influenced by the memory of past events. For example, almost all of us have encountered in life an unfriendly waiter or an annoyed cashier. This unpleasant experience can poison our subsequent encounter with an unsuspecting co-worker, friend, or child. And if we return to what happened in the restaurant, did the previous event of the same day affect our perception of that situation? Was the waiter really as rude as we thought? While most people will never truly start life with a clean slate, research still suggests that cleansing or washing can reduce the impact of previous events on subsequent ones, almost as if washing removed some of the past experience from us. Perhaps, with a simple wash, you can wash away the past and plunge into the present.
In general, ablution can be an extremely valuable action in everyday life. When you’re feeling overwhelmed by emotional and cognitive stimuli, zigzagging between work, family, friends, and leisure, handwashing can be a good way to take some of the pressure off and adjust to the drastic transitions between work-life stress so you don’t have to drag » work problems home. A shower can greatly contribute to the desired sense of well-being. The cleansing process can refresh and revitalize not only the body, but also our ability to focus on current events. A shower, a forest spring, a lake, the sea or an ordinary faucet with tap water – all these are our wonderful helpers to open a clean page in life and focus on current affairs and worries.
For more research on the interaction between our bodily sensations and emotions, physical feelings and moral judgments, see Talma Lobel’s book A Warm Cup on a Cold Day (Alpina Publisher, scheduled for publication in July).