Universität zu Köln

Kaspar, Kai ORCID: 0000-0002-5092-6798 and Cames, Sarah (2016). Cognitions about bodily purity attenuate stress perception. Sci Rep, 6. LONDON: NATURE PUBLISHING GROUP. ISSN 2045-2322

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Abstract

Based on the assumption that physical purity is associated with a clean slate impression, we examined how cognitions about bodily cleanliness modulate stress perception. Participants visualized themselves in a clean or dirty state before reporting the frequency of stress-related situations experienced in the past. In Study 1 (n = 519) and Study 2 (n = 647) cleanliness versus dirtiness cognitions reliably reduced stress perception. Further results and a mediation analysis revealed that this novel effect was not simply driven by participants' cognitive engagement in stress recall. Moreover, we found that participants' temporal engagement in the recall of past stressful events negatively correlated with the amount of perceived stress, indicating an ease-of-retrieval phenomenon. However, a direct manipulation of the number of recalled stressful events in Study 3 (n = 792) showed the opposite effect: few versus many recalled events increased the perceived frequency of past stress-related situations. Overall, these novel results indicate an interesting avenue for future research on cognitively oriented stress reduction interventions, add to the literature on purity-related clean slate effects, and may help to better understand washing rituals in patients with obsessive-compulsive disorders.

Item Type:	Journal Article
Creators:	Creators Email ORCID ORCID Put Code Kaspar, Kai UNSPECIFIED orcid.org/0000-0002-5092-6798 UNSPECIFIED Cames, Sarah UNSPECIFIED UNSPECIFIED UNSPECIFIED
URN:	urn:nbn:de:hbz:38-252684
DOI:	10.1038/srep38829
Journal or Publication Title:	Sci Rep
Volume:	6
Date:	2016
Publisher:	NATURE PUBLISHING GROUP
Place of Publication:	LONDON
ISSN:	2045-2322
Language:	English
Faculty:	Faculty of Human Sciences
Divisions:	Faculty of Human Sciences > Department Psychologie
Subjects:	Psychology
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Keywords Language THREATENED MORALITY; RETRIEVAL; EASE; RESPONSES; MACBETH; POWER; ACCESSIBILITY; AVAILABILITY; EXPERIENCES; EMBODIMENT Multiple languages Multidisciplinary Sciences Multiple languages
Refereed:	Yes
URI:	http://kups.ub.uni-koeln.de/id/eprint/25268