Title
Actual Cleaning and Simulated Cleaning Attenuate Psychological and Physiological Effects of Stressful Events
Author
Lee, S.W.S.
Millet, K.
Grinstein, A.
Pauwels, K.H.
Johnston, P.R.
Volkov, A.E.
van der Wal, A.J.
Publication year
2022
Abstract
The human mind harbors various mechanisms for coping with stress, but what role does physical behavior play? Inspired by ethological observations of autogrooming activity across species, we offer a general hypothesis: cleaning attenuates effects of stressful events. Preregistered behavioral and psychophysiological experiments (N = 3,066 in United Kingdom, United States, and Canada) found that (a) concrete visual simulation of cleaning behavior alleviated residual anxiety from a stress-inducing phys ical scene, an effect distinct from touch, and (b) actual cleaning behavior enhanced adaptive cardiovascular reactivity to a highly stressful context of social performance/evaluation, which provides the first physiological evidence for the attenuation of stress related effects by cleaning. Overall, actual cleaning and simulated cleaning attenuate effects of physical or psychological stressors, even when they have nothing to do with contamination or disease and would not be resolved by cleaning. Daily cleaning beha vior may facilitate coping with stressors like physical risks and psychological threats to the self.
Subject
Stress
Cleaning
Mental simulation
Cardiovascular reactivity
Self
Energy Efficiency
Energy / Geological Survey Netherlands
To reference this document use:
http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:c086e2ff-a474-4bee-818e-42940e62a228
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1177/19485506221099428
TNO identifier
972928
Publisher
SAGE Publications Inc.
ISSN
1948-5506
Source
Social Psychological and Personality Science, 1-14
Document type
article