Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto.
Department of Economics, University of Toronto.
Psychol Bull. 2024 Apr;150(4):355-398. doi: 10.1037/bul0000421. Epub 2024 Feb 15.
Physical cleansing is a human universal. It serves health and survival functions. It also carries rich psychological meanings that interest scholars across disciplines. What psychological effects result from cleansing? What psychological states trigger cleansing? The present meta-analysis takes stock of all experimental studies examining the psychological consequences and antecedents of cleansing-related thoughts, feelings, and behaviors (e.g., feeling less guilty after cleansing; spontaneously cleansing oneself after thinking of unwelcomed sexual encounter). It includes 129 records, 230 experiments, and 551 effects from 42,793 participants. Effect sizes were synthesized in random-effects models using robust variance estimates with small-sample corrections, supplemented by other techniques. Outliers were excluded using leave-one-out diagnostics and sensitivity analysis. Publication bias was assessed and corrected for using eight methods. Theoretical, methodological, sample, and report moderators were coded. After excluding outliers, without bias correction, the synthesized effect size estimate was = 0.315, 95% CI [0.277, 0.354]. Using various bias correction methods, the estimate ranged from = 0.103 to 0.331 and always exhibited considerable heterogeneity. Effect sizes were especially large for behavioral measures and varied significantly between sample types, sample regions, and report types. Meanwhile, effects were domain-general (observed in the moral domain and beyond), bidirectional (physical cleansing ↔ psychological variables), and robust across theoretical types, manipulation operationalizations, and study designs. Limitations included mixed replicability, suboptimal methodological rigor, and restricted sample diversity. We recommend future studies to (a) incorporate power analysis, preregistration, and replication; (b) investigate generalizability across samples; (c) strengthen discriminant validity; and (d) test competing theoretical accounts. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).
身体清洁是人类的普遍行为。它具有促进健康和生存的功能。同时，身体清洁也具有丰富的心理意义，引起了跨学科学者的兴趣。身体清洁会带来哪些心理影响？哪些心理状态会引发身体清洁行为？本元分析对所有考察与清洁相关的思想、感受和行为的心理后果和前因的实验研究进行了总结，这些研究包括清洁后感觉内疚感减轻、想到不受欢迎的性接触后自发清洁等内容（例如，清洁后感觉不那么内疚；想到不受欢迎的性接触后自发清洁）。本研究共纳入 129 项记录、230 项实验和 42793 名参与者的 551 个效应。使用稳健方差估计和小样本校正的随机效应模型对效应大小进行综合，并辅以其他技术。使用逐一剔除诊断法和敏感性分析排除异常值。使用八种方法评估和校正发表偏倚。对理论、方法、样本和报告的调节因素进行编码。在排除异常值后，未进行偏倚校正时，综合效应大小估计值为 = 0.315，95%CI [0.277, 0.354]。使用各种偏倚校正方法，估计值范围为 = 0.103 至 0.331，且始终存在较大的异质性。行为测量的效应量特别大，且在样本类型、样本区域和报告类型之间存在显著差异。同时，效应具有领域普遍性（在道德领域及其他领域中均观察到）、双向性（身体清洁与心理变量），并且在理论类型、操作化和研究设计方面具有稳健性。局限性包括混合可重复性、方法学严谨性欠佳和样本多样性受限。我们建议未来的研究：（a）纳入功效分析、预注册和复制；（b）考察样本的可推广性；（c）增强区分效度；（d）检验竞争性理论解释。（PsycInfo 数据库记录（c）2024 APA，保留所有权利）。
