Threats to moral self-perceptions trigger obsessive compulsive contamination-related behavioral tendencies.
OBJECTIVE
Obsessive compulsive (OC) phenomena such as contamination fears may lead to significant impairment in daily functioning. In this research, we examined whether threat to moral self-perceptions can trigger contamination-related behavioral tendencies.


METHODS
Three experiments examined the influence of subtle priming of morality-related information on contamination-related behavioral tendencies.


RESULTS
Subtle suggestions of incompetence in the morality self-domain led to heightened OC-related behavioral tendencies. These effects were specific to self-relevant (versus other-relevant), negative (versus positive) information about the morality domain (versus a morality-irrelevant domain). Findings were not related to pre-existing variations in self-esteem, stress, anxiety, or depression, and were not explained by mood fluctuations.


CONCLUSIONS
Our studies were conducted with non-clinical samples.


CONCLUSIONS
Self-sensitivities in the moral domain may be causally linked with contamination-related concerns. Treatments addressing such sensitivities may prove useful when treating obsessive compulsive phenomena.
School of Psychology, Interdisciplinary Center (IDC) Herzliya, P.O.Box 167, Herzliya 46150, Israel. gdoron@idc.ac.il
Guy
G
Doron
Dar
D
Sar-El
Mario
M
Mikulincer
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000339:Affect; D001007:Anxiety / Q000523:psychology; D003863:Depression / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009014:Morals; D009771:Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder / Q000523:psychology*; D010698:Phobic Disorders / Q000523:psychology*; D060865:Repetition Priming; D012649:Self Concept; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000523:psychology