Guilt Laundry

Grandmothers have a keen insight into human nature, accumulated by years if idleness and general whining. My grand mother firmly believes that taking a dip in the holy river of Ganges absolves one of all wrong doings. Her conviction is similarly strong for the south Indian ritual of tonsuring one’s head. Many of my relatives have made that trip to a church leaving them unfashionably bald for a week and even more unfashionably stubble-headed for a longer time. People who go through this act of cleansing/tonsuring vouch for the feeling of a their guilt being reduced.

In the realization of a ‘wrong-doing’ a strong desire to correct the wrong deed arises. In the event of it being irreparable, despair and guilt arises. This guilt can affect the behavior of the person and can also lead to depression. So one turns to religious/cleaning rituals to deal with the guilt and go back to a morally sound self-image.

And God thrives on guilt, in a completely helpless situation; religious rituals, however irrational they are give a feeling of relief and forgiveness from the wrong deed. This belief is so deep rooted that the very act of cleansing like washing or tonsuring can give a feeling of relief to the person, although the wrong doing has not been undone. This psychological pairing of the physical act of cleansing and mental state of being morally pure was investigated in a study reported in Science.

In one of the studies the authors wanted to connect the morally compromised mental state with the need for physical cleaning. Subjects were asked to hand copy a story, either an ethical one or an unethical one, and later asked to evaluate the desirability of objects, some of which were cleaning products and others were neutral products. The subjects who copied an unethical story rated cleansing products as more desirable consistently than the other objects. These subjects also preferred to take cleaning products like an antiseptic wipe as free gifts over other gifts like pencils.

Does physical cleaning restore the self-image of moral purity of the subjects? A guilt-ridden person is likely to compensate for his wrong doing by doing altruistic and penitential acts, like volunteering. Have the people who have undergone the physical act of cleansing recovered their morally pure mental state, would that make them less likely to volunteer for an altruistic job? It seems from this study that it did. Subjects were asked to describe an unethical deed from the past and only one group was given an antiseptic hand. Both groups were then asked if they liked to volunteer a student in need of help. Less number of subjects in the group that has washed their hands volunteered than the other group.

For the reasons and importance of this study, I will quote the authors

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.

On a personal note, I have never trusted anyone who exhibit excessing cleaning behavior. May be they are subconsciously trying to clean their guilt of some super sin that they have commited. By the same (flawed) logic, I live like a slob, I feel no need for cleaning, hence I have commited no sins:-)