The spread of mental contamination.
OBJECTIVE
Fear of contamination can be evoked following physical contact with a dirty, harmful or polluted item, person, or place (contact contamination) or in the absence of physical contact with a contaminant (mental contamination). The spread of contact contamination does not degrade over successive degrees of removal from the contaminated source. However, to date, the spread of mental contamination has not been empirically investigated. This study aimed to examine the spread and degradation of mental contamination.


METHODS
The paradigm of Tolin et al. (2004) was adapted. Feelings of mental contamination were evoked, and participants were asked to transfer these feelings to an uncontaminated pencil by touching it (contact condition) and without touching it (no contact condition).


RESULTS
Seventy-two percent of participants in the contact condition and 48% participants in the no-contact condition reported being able to transfer contamination to a clean pencil, demonstrating that mental contamination transfers both with and without contact. In both conditions, the mental contamination subsequently spread to a series of 12 neutral pencils without degradation.


CONCLUSIONS
These findings suggest that mental contamination can be transmitted and spread in the absence of physical contact, similar to contact contamination.
School of Psychology and Clinical Language Sciences, Reading University, Earley Gate, Reading RG6 6AL, UK. Electronic address: a.e.coughtrey@pgr.reading.ac.uk.
Anna E
AE
Coughtrey
Roz
R
Shafran
S J
SJ
Rachman
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D004644:Emotions; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000523:psychology*; D008960:Models, Psychological; D009771:Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology*; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D064232:Visual Analog Scale; D055815:Young Adult
Contagion; Mental contamination; Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder; Sympathetic magic