Washing away your sins in the brain: physical cleaning and priming of cleaning recruit different brain networks after moral threat.
The association between moral purity and physical cleanliness has been widely discussed recently. Studies found that moral threat initiates the need of physical cleanliness, but actual physical cleaning and priming of cleaning have inconsistent effects on subsequent attitudes and behaviors. Here, we used resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging to explore the underlying neural mechanism of actual physical cleaning and priming of cleaning. After recalling moral transgression with strong feelings of guilt and shame, participants either actually cleaned their faces with a wipe or were primed with cleanliness through viewing its pictures. Results showed that actual physical cleaning reduced the spontaneous brain activities in the right insula and MPFC, regions that involved in embodied moral emotion processing, while priming of cleaning decreased activities in the right superior frontal gyrus and middle frontal gyrus, regions that participated in executive control processing. Additionally, actual physical cleaning also changed functional connectivity between insula/MPFC and emotion related regions, whereas priming of cleaning modified connectivity within both moral and sensorimotor areas. These findings revealed that actual physical cleaning and priming of cleaning led to changes in different brain regions and networks, providing neural evidence for the inconsistent effects of cleanliness on subsequent attitudes and behaviors.
School of Economics and Business Administration.|State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning & IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research.|Center for Collaboration and Innovation in Brain and Learning Sciences, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China.
Honghong
H
Tang
State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning & IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research.|Center for Collaboration and Innovation in Brain and Learning Sciences, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China.|Beijing Key Laboratory of Brain Imaging and Connectomics, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China.
Xiaping
X
Lu
State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning & IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research.|Center for Collaboration and Innovation in Brain and Learning Sciences, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China.|Beijing Key Laboratory of Brain Imaging and Connectomics, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China.
Rui
R
Su
State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning & IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research.|Center for Collaboration and Innovation in Brain and Learning Sciences, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China.|Beijing Key Laboratory of Brain Imaging and Connectomics, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China.
Zilu
Z
Liang
Department of Psychology, Renmin University of China, Beijing, China.
Xiaoqin
X
Mai
State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning & IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research.|Center for Collaboration and Innovation in Brain and Learning Sciences, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China.|Beijing Key Laboratory of Brain Imaging and Connectomics, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China.
Chao
C
Liu
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001921:Brain / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D001931:Brain Mapping; D004644:Emotions / Q000502:physiology*; D056344:Executive Function; D005145:Face; D005260:Female; D006167:Guilt; D006801:Humans; D006920:Hygiene; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D009014:Morals; D009415:Nerve Net / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D055815:Young Adult
embodiment; moral; physical cleanliness; resting-fMRI; social