We already know that literally having clean hands affects your moral judgment. But can it also influence your politics?
Apparently. Researchers asked 52 college students to complete a questionnaire about their political attitudes. Some were asked to “step over to the wall” to answer the questions while others were told to “step over to the hand-sanitizer dispenser.” Those who simply stood in the vicinity of the hand-sanitizer rated themselves as more conservative. What’s extra weird is that they were more conservative even on fiscal issues when they were near the hand-sanitizer. What germ-killing gel has to do with tax policy I do not know.
In a previous study, researchers found a connection between disgust and conservatism. For instance, conservatives were more likely to strongly agree with statements like “I try to avoid letting any part of my body touch the toilet seat in a public restroom, even when it appears clean.” Presumably, conservatives would prefer that restrooms be privatized.
Leon Kass argues that our feelings of disgust aren’t simply silly, visceral reactions. Instead they’re indications of the “wisdom of repugnance”: Cannibalism is yucky and therefore bad. For Kass, this also extends to watching a stranger eat an ice cream cone, something he considers gross because it is “catlike.”
Martha Nussbaum has written an entire book on the politics of disgust. In it, she argues that Kass is wrong and that “disgust is not wise but terribly obtuse.” She goes on to write that “projective disgust is inspired by a powerful loathing of aspects of the self, and it typically seeks a handy scapegoat. The idea of subordinating others by imputing disgusting properties to them lies at the heart of disgust’s dynamics.”
Still, I’m not sure any of that really explains why people who stand near hand-sanitizer become more conservative. Maybe cleanliness — or even just the idea of cleanliness — makes people more likely to adopt socially conservative viewpoints, and perhaps people associate socially conservative ideas with fiscally conservative ones. It’s worth noting that the subjects were also college students; you have to wonder whether middle-aged subjects would be as easily swayed.
The authors are concerned about the unintended effects of putting hand-sanitizing stations in public buildings. I’d take it a step further. Could you influence the outcome of an election by distributing free samples of Purell to voters? And would that be a dirty trick, or a clean one?
(Here is the abstract for the study, titled “Dirty Liberals!: Reminders of Physical Cleanliness Influence Moral and Political Attitudes,” is here. The authors are Erik G. Helzer and David A. Pizarro. It was published in the journal Psychological Science.)
