Actual Cleaning and Simulated Cleaning Attenuate Psychological and Physiological Effects of Stressful Events

Spike W.S. Lee; Kobe Millet; Amir Grinstein; Koen H. Pauwels; Phillip R. Johnston; Alexandra E. Volkov; Arianne J. van der Wal

doi:10.1177/19485506221099428

Actual Cleaning and Simulated Cleaning Attenuate Psychological and Physiological Effects of Stressful Events

Spike W.S. Lee^*
, Kobe Millet
, Amir Grinstein
, Koen H. Pauwels
, Phillip R. Johnston
, Alexandra E. Volkov
, Arianne J. van der Wal

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article › Academic › peer-review

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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 physical 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 behavior may facilitate coping with stressors like physical risks and psychological threats to the self.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	381-394
Number of pages	14
Journal	Social Psychological and Personality Science
Volume	14
Issue number	4
Early online date	9 Jul 2022
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1177/19485506221099428
Publication status	Published - May 2023

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: S.W.S.L. acknowledges support by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (Insight Grant no. 435-2017-0127; Insight Development Grant no. 430-2021-00060), Ontario Ministry of Research, Innovation and Science (Early Researcher Award—Round 13), Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study (Theme-Group Fellowship 2015), and University of Toronto (Connaught New Researcher Award 2014–2015; Rotman Small-Scale Matching Research Grant 2017) while preparing this article.

Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s) 2022.

Funding

The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: S.W.S.L. acknowledges support by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (Insight Grant no. 435-2017-0127; Insight Development Grant no. 430-2021-00060), Ontario Ministry of Research, Innovation and Science (Early Researcher Award—Round 13), Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study (Theme-Group Fellowship 2015), and University of Toronto (Connaught New Researcher Award 2014–2015; Rotman Small-Scale Matching Research Grant 2017) while preparing this article. The authors thank Wendy Berry Mendes, Elizabeth Page-Gould, Brett Ford, Jennifer Stellar, William Ryan, and Michael Inzlicht for psychophysiological advice and support; members of the Mind and Body Lab for research assistance; David Hauser, Sam Maglio, Norbert Schwarz, Arjen I. J. G. van Lin and members of the Social/Personality Research Group at the University of Toronto for feedback. The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: S.W.S.L. acknowledges support by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (Insight Grant no. 435-2017-0127; Insight Development Grant no. 430-2021-00060), Ontario Ministry of Research, Innovation and Science (Early Researcher Award—Round 13), Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study (Theme-Group Fellowship 2015), and University of Toronto (Connaught New Researcher Award 2014–2015; Rotman Small-Scale Matching Research Grant 2017) while preparing this article.

Funders	Funder number
Mind and Body Lab
Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study
Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada	430-2021-00060, 435-2017-0127
Ontario Ministry of Research, Innovation and Science
University of Toronto

Keywords

cardiovascular reactivity
cleaning
mental simulation
self
stress

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10.1177/19485506221099428

lee-et-al-2022-actual-cleaning-and-simulated-cleaning-attenuate-psychological-and-physiological-effects-of-stressfulFinal published version, 1.73 MBLicence: Article 25fa Dutch Copyright Act

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@article{791793f141a8407c80d154afe6b436d3,

title = "Actual Cleaning and Simulated Cleaning Attenuate Psychological and Physiological Effects of Stressful Events",

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 physical 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 behavior may facilitate coping with stressors like physical risks and psychological threats to the self.",

keywords = "cardiovascular reactivity, cleaning, mental simulation, self, stress",

author = "Lee, \{Spike W.S.\} and Kobe Millet and Amir Grinstein and Pauwels, \{Koen H.\} and Johnston, \{Phillip R.\} and Volkov, \{Alexandra E.\} and \{van der Wal\}, \{Arianne J.\}",

note = "Funding Information: The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: S.W.S.L. acknowledges support by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (Insight Grant no. 435-2017-0127; Insight Development Grant no. 430-2021-00060), Ontario Ministry of Research, Innovation and Science (Early Researcher Award—Round 13), Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study (Theme-Group Fellowship 2015), and University of Toronto (Connaught New Researcher Award 2014–2015; Rotman Small-Scale Matching Research Grant 2017) while preparing this article. Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} The Author(s) 2022.",

year = "2023",

month = may,

doi = "10.1177/19485506221099428",

language = "English",

volume = "14",

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AU - Johnston, Phillip R.

AU - Volkov, Alexandra E.

AU - van der Wal, Arianne J.

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Actual Cleaning and Simulated Cleaning Attenuate Psychological and Physiological Effects of Stressful Events

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