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Hand Washing Induces a Clean Slate Effect in Moral Judgments: A Pupillometry and Eye-Tracking Study

Overview of attention for article published in Scientific Reports, May 2015
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  • In the top 25% of all research outputs scored by Altmetric
  • High Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age (83rd percentile)
  • Good Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age and source (77th percentile)

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13 X users
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1 Facebook page
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1 YouTube creator

Citations

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24 Dimensions

Readers on

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69 Mendeley
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1 CiteULike
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Title
Hand Washing Induces a Clean Slate Effect in Moral Judgments: A Pupillometry and Eye-Tracking Study
Published in
Scientific Reports, May 2015
DOI 10.1038/srep10471
Pubmed ID
Authors

Kai Kaspar, Vanessa Krapp, Peter König

Abstract

Physical cleansing is commonly understood to protect us against physical contamination. However, recent studies showed additional effects on moral judgments. Under the heading of the "Macbeth effect" direct links between bodily cleansing and one's own moral purity have been demonstrated. Here we investigate (1) how moral judgments develop over time and how they are altered by hand washing, (2) whether changes in moral judgments can be explained by altered information sampling from the environment, and (3) whether hand washing affects emotional arousal. Using a pre-post control group design, we found that morality ratings of morally good and bad scenes acquired more extreme values in the control group over time, an effect that was fully counteracted by intermediate hand washing. This result supports the notion of a clean slate effect by hand washing. Thereby, eye-tracking data did not uncover differences in eye movement behavior that may explain differences in moral judgments. Thus, the clean slate effect is not due to altered information sampling from the environment. Finally, compared to the control group, pupil diameter decreased after hand washing, thus demonstrating a direct physiological effect. The results shed light on the physiological mechanisms behind this type of embodiment phenomenon.

X Demographics

X Demographics

The data shown below were collected from the profiles of 13 X users who shared this research output. Click here to find out more about how the information was compiled.
Mendeley readers

Mendeley readers

The data shown below were compiled from readership statistics for 69 Mendeley readers of this research output. Click here to see the associated Mendeley record.

Geographical breakdown

Country Count As %
United Kingdom 1 1%
Spain 1 1%
Turkey 1 1%
Brazil 1 1%
Unknown 65 94%

Demographic breakdown

Readers by professional status Count As %
Student > Ph. D. Student 17 25%
Student > Bachelor 13 19%
Student > Master 11 16%
Researcher 5 7%
Professor 3 4%
Other 12 17%
Unknown 8 12%
Readers by discipline Count As %
Psychology 27 39%
Engineering 8 12%
Neuroscience 7 10%
Medicine and Dentistry 4 6%
Business, Management and Accounting 2 3%
Other 12 17%
Unknown 9 13%
Attention Score in Context

Attention Score in Context

This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 10. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 25 August 2023.
All research outputs
#3,826,646
of 25,563,770 outputs
Outputs from Scientific Reports
#32,947
of 141,775 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#47,663
of 280,774 outputs
Outputs of similar age from Scientific Reports
#346
of 1,552 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 25,563,770 research outputs across all sources so far. Compared to these this one has done well and is in the 85th percentile: it's in the top 25% of all research outputs ever tracked by Altmetric.
So far Altmetric has tracked 141,775 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a lot more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 18.8. This one has done well, scoring higher than 76% of its peers.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 280,774 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one has done well, scoring higher than 83% of its contemporaries.
We're also able to compare this research output to 1,552 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one has done well, scoring higher than 77% of its contemporaries.