Dirty liberals! Reminders of physical cleanliness influence moral and political attitudes
Abstract
Many moral codes place a special emphasis on bodily purity, and manipulations that directly target bodily purity have been shown to influence a variety of moral judgments. Across two studies, we demonstrated that reminders of physical purity influence specific moral judgments regarding behaviors in the sexual domain as well as broad political attitudes. In Study 1, individuals in a public setting who were given a reminder of physical cleansing reported being more politically conservative than did individuals who were not given such a reminder. In Study 2, individuals reminded of physical cleansing in the laboratory demonstrated harsher moral judgments toward violations of sexual purity and were more likely to report being politically conservative than control participants. Together, these experiments provide further evidence of a deep link between physical purity and moral judgment, and they offer preliminary evidence that manipulations of physical purity can influence general (and putatively stable) political attitudes.
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Subjective perception of infection risk causes individuals to be more conformist, prefer conformity and obedience in others, respond more negatively toward nonconformists, and endorse more conservative socio-political attitudes.
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From Pathogens and Politics: Further Evidence That Parasite Prevalence Predicts Authoritarianism (2013) · cites this paper as [10]
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Pathogens and Politics: Further Evidence That Parasite Prevalence Predicts Authoritarianism
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- Authors
- Helzer, E. G., & Pizarro, D. A.
- Affiliations
- Cornell University (US)
- Corresponding author
- Helzer, Erik G.
- Venue
- Psychological Science
- Publisher
- SAGE Publications
- Published
- 2011-03-18
- Volume
- 22
- Issue
- 4
- Pages
- 517-522
- ISSN
- 0956-7976 (ISSN-L)
- 1467-9280
- OpenAlex
- W2145828658
- Cited by
- 201
- References
- 16
- Citations by year
- 2026: 4 · 2025: 5 · 2024: 11 · 2023: 11 · 2022: 11 · 2021: 18 · 2020: 11 · 2019: 10 · 2018: 9 · 2017: 32 · 2016: 13 · 2015: 16 · 2014: 20 · 2013: 12 · 2012: 12
- FWCI
- 8.11
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Psychological Science (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Psychology of Moral and Emotional Judgment
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Social and Intergroup Psychology
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Death Anxiety and Social Exclusion
- Keywords
- bodily purity, moral judgment, political attitudes, political conservatism, sexual purity, moral norms
- MeSH terms
- Attitude, Hand Disinfection, Humans, Judgment, Morals, Politics, Sexual Behavior
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