Lady Macbeth effect
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The supposed Lady Macbeth effect or Macbeth effect is a priming effect said to occur when response to a cleaning cue is increased after having been induced by a feeling of shame.[1] The effect is named after the Lady Macbeth character in the Shakespeare play Macbeth; she imagined bloodstains on her hands after committing murder.
Background
[edit]In one experiment, different groups of participants were asked to recall a good or bad past deed, after which they were asked to fill in the letters of three incomplete words: "W_ _H", "SH_ _ER" and "S_ _P". Those who had been asked to recall a bad deed were about 60% more likely to respond with cleansing-related words like "wash", "shower" and "soap" instead of alternatives such as "wish", "shaker" or "stop".[1]
In another experiment, experimenters were able to reduce choice-supportive bias by having subjects engage in forms of self-cleaning.[2]
The effect is apparently localized enough that those who had been asked to lie verbally preferred an oral cleaning product and those asked to lie in writing preferred a hand cleaning product over the other kind of cleanser and other control items.[3]
Other researchers have been unable to replicate the basic effect using larger samples.[4][5] Replication difficulties have emerged for three out of four of Zhong and Liljenquist's original studies (i.e., Study 2, Study 3, and Study 4).[6][better source needed] A meta-analysis of 15 studies examining the relationship between primes related to moral threat and cleansing preferences found a small effect, with no significant relationship evident across 11 studies conducted by researchers other than the original ones.[7]
See also
[edit]References
[edit]- ^ a b Zhong, Chen-Bo; Liljenquist, Katie (2006). "Washing Away Your Sins: Threatened Morality and Physical Cleansing" (PDF). Science. 313 (5792): 1451–1452. Bibcode:2006Sci...313.1451Z. CiteSeerX 10.1.1.181.571. doi:10.1126/science.1130726. PMID 16960010. S2CID 33103635. Archived from the original (PDF) on August 9, 2017.
- ^ Lee, Spike W. S.; Schwarz, Norbert (2010). "Washing away postdecisional dissonance". Science. 328 (5979): 709. Bibcode:2010Sci...328..709L. doi:10.1126/science.1186799. PMID 20448177. S2CID 18611420.
- ^ Lee, Spike W. S.; Schwarz, Norbert (2010). "Dirty Hands and Dirty Mouths: Embodiment of the Moral-Purity Metaphor Is Specific to the Motor Modality Involved in Moral Transgression". Psychological Science. 21 (10): 1423–1425. doi:10.1177/0956797610382788. PMID 20817782. S2CID 26639040.
- ^ Fayard, Jennifer; et al. (2009). "Is cleanliness next to godliness? Dispelling old wives' tales: Failure to replicate Zhong and Liljenquist (2006)" (PDF). Journal of Articles in Support of the Null Hypothesis. 6: 21–30. CiteSeerX 10.1.1.214.2427.
- ^ Earp, Brian D.; Everett, Jim A. C.; Madva, Elizabeth N.; Hamlin, J. Kiley (2014). "Out, Damned Spot: Can the "Macbeth Effect" be Replicated?". Basic and Applied Social Psychology. 36: 91–98. doi:10.1080/01973533.2013.856792. S2CID 51472032.
- ^ "Curate Science - Crowdsourcing the Transparency of Empirical Research".
- ^ Siev, Jedidiah; Zuckerman, Shelby E.; Siev, Joseph J. (September 2018). "The Relationship Between Immorality and Cleansing". Social Psychology. 49 (5): 303–309. doi:10.1027/1864-9335/a000349. S2CID 149910586.