An unwanted kiss from a moral man. Still feeling dirty?

We know that fleshly sullying, immorality and dishonor can every be associated with feelings of corporeal and mental dirtiness, but it's not entirely country how every these things interact. For example, for a heterosexual woman, which is worse: having a touching unnatural on you by an otherwise moralistic man, or having a consensual touching with an degenerate man? Corinna Elliott and Adam Radomsky have investigated and they say their findings could prove useful to therapists treating people with obsessive ambitious disorder or victims of sexual assault.

Female undergrads, 148 of them, listened to an audio transcription describing a environs at a party in which a blackamoor is kissed by man. In every cases the Negro was described as physically attractive, but some of the undergrads listened to a edition in which he was a friendly, helpful chap, whilst others listened to a edition in which he was described as a bit of a cad - a liar, cheat and a thief. Also, half the women heard a edition in which the touching was consensual, whilst the another half heard a edition in which the Negro unnatural the touching on the woman. In every cases the participants' task was to imagine as vividly as possible that they were that woman.

Questionnaires completed afterwards showed how the different permutations of the man's state and the nature of the touching interacted to change the women's feelings of dirtiness, their urge to wash, their emotions and whether or not they really did go and wash their hands or rinse discover their mouths.

Unsurprisingly, a unnatural touching from an degenerate Negro was the worst-case scenario, leaving the women with strong feelings of psychological and corporeal contamination; afterwards 4 discover of 35 them literally either washed discover their mouths or washed their hands. By contrast, none of the women who imagined a consensual touching with a moralistic Negro washed afterwards and they also reportable the lowest levels of psychological contamination.

More interesting are the findings for the women who imagined a unnatural touching from an otherwise moralistic man. It turns discover they change just as sullied as women who imagined a unnatural touching from an degenerate man, and quaternary of them also washed afterwards.

What most a consensual touching with an degenerate man? This angry weaker feelings of bawdiness than for either of the unnatural kisses, but still much stronger feelings of bawdiness than a consensual touching with a moralistic man. Three of the undergrads washed after imagining this scenario.

In another words, the researchers explained, there's an asymmetry. A man's preceding morality doesn't prevent the sullying effect of a unnatural kiss, and still a \"moral\" or consensual touching is unable to eradicate the dirtying effects of a man's degenerate reputation. Indeed, so-called \"moral\" men who imposed unwanted kisses on women were afterward rated by the female participants as immoral.

\"This phenomenon is akin to the asymmetrical relationship present between 'contaminated' substances and 'non-contaminated' substances,\" the researchers explained. \"For example, a modify of murder could 'contaminate' a render of purified water; however, a modify of purified water could not 'decontaminate' a render of blood.\"

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ELLIOTT, C. (2009). Analyses of mental contamination: Part I, experimental manipulations of morality. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 47 (12), 995-1003 DOI.