Physical Cleanliness Research Articles

Effects of dynamic information display on the perception of public washroom cleanliness

Washroom cleanliness is a key influence on our positive attitude towards public spaces. Recently, interactive technology has been introduced. While the role of physical cleanliness is obvious, interactive technology may affect the perception of cleanliness. This study investigates whether the most recent washroom service time displayed on a touchscreen influences the perception of washroom cleanliness. Participants leaving a washroom were asked to rate the cleanliness of the washroom. The touchscreen that showed the service time was visible for the experimental group and covered for the control group. Results showed that participants who noticed the most recent washroom service time in the experimental group perceived the washroom as cleaner than the control group. In addition, the touchscreen was preferred as an interface for washroom service request, compared with telephone calls and text messaging. The results suggest interactive technology has potential to enhance attitudes towards public space.

Effects of dynamic information display on the perception of public washroom cleanliness

Washroom cleanliness is a key influence on our positive attitude towards public spaces. Recently, interactive technology has been introduced. While the role of physical cleanliness is obvious, interactive technology may affect the perception of cleanliness. This study investigates whether the most recent washroom service time displayed on a touchscreen influences the perception of washroom cleanliness. Participants leaving a washroom were asked to rate the cleanliness of the washroom. The touchscreen that showed the service time was visible for the experimental group and covered for the control group. Results showed that participants who noticed the most recent washroom service time in the experimental group perceived the washroom as cleaner than the control group. In addition, the touchscreen was preferred as an interface for washroom service request, compared with telephone calls and text messaging. The results suggest interactive technology has potential to enhance attitudes towards public space.

A clean self reduces bribery intent.

The present research aimed at investigating the effect of physical cleanliness on bribery intent and the moderating role of personal need for structure (PNS) on this relationship. In Study 1, we used questionnaires to establish the correlation between bodily cleanliness and bribery intent. In Study 2, we examined the effect by priming sense of self-cleanliness. Study 3 was conducted outside a public bath to test our finding that physical purity decreases bribery intent again; we further found that individuals with high PNS showed no reduction in bribery intent even after cleaning themselves. We thus connected physical cleanliness with the corruption field and improved our understanding of its underlying moderating mechanism.

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.

A good patient? How notions of ‘a good patient’ affect patient-nurse relationships and ART adherence in Zimbabwe

BackgroundWhile patient-provider interactions are commonly understood as mutually constructed relationships, the role of patient behaviour, participation in interactions, and characteristics, particularly ideals surrounding notions of ‘good’ and ‘bad’ patients, are under-examined. This article examines social representations of ‘a good patient’ and how these representations affect patient-healthcare provider relationships and antiretroviral treatment (ART) for people living with HIV.MethodsUsing thematic network analysis, we examined interview and focus group transcripts involving 25 healthcare staff, 48 ART users, and 31 carers of HIV positive children, as well as field notes from over 100 h of ethnographic observation at health centres in rural Zimbabwe.ResultsCharacteristics of a good patient include obedience, patience, politeness, listening, enthusiasm for treatment, intelligence, physical cleanliness, honesty, gratitude and lifestyle adaptations (taking pills correctly and coming to the clinic when told). As healthcare workers may decide to punish patients who do not live up the ‘good patient persona’, many patients seek to perform within the confines of the ‘good patient persona’ to access good care and ensure continued access to ART.DiscussionThe notion of a ‘good ART patient’ can have positive effects on patient health outcomes. It is one of the only arenas of the clinic experience that ART patients can influence in their favour. However, for people not conforming to the norms of the ‘good patient persona’, the productive and health-enabling patient-nurse relationship may break down and be detrimental to the patient.ConclusionWe conclude that policy makers need to take heed of the social representations that govern patient-nurse relationships and their role in facilitating or undermining ART adherence.

Another’s punishment cleanses the self: Evidence for a moral cleansing function of punishing transgressors

Separate lines of research show that individuals: (a) understand immorality metaphorically as physical contamination; (b) project undesirable self-attributes onto others; and (c) view punishment as eliminating a transgressor’s immorality. Integrating these findings, we hypothesized that individuals project guilt over their own immorality—represented as physical contamination—onto another transgressor whose punishment restores their own moral and physical purity. In Study 1, personal immorality salience decreased felt physical cleanliness unless another transgressor was punished. In Study 2, personal immorality salience led participants to see another transgressor as physically dirtier, an effect mediated by guilt. Furthermore, the punishment of the contaminated transgressor restored participants’ personal morality and eliminated restorative moral behavior. In Study 3, punishing a transgressor who served as a projection target for participants’ immorality removed felt physical contamination indirectly through decreased guilt. These studies are the first to show that another’s punishment can “cleanse” the self of “dirty” immorality feelings.

Dirty Dungeons and Clean Cubicles: Organizational Consequences of Workplace Cleanliness

Since the Hawthorne experiments in the early 1900s, organizational studies have focused on human relations and largely overlooked the role of the physical work environment in shaping organizational behavior. Based on recent research on the psychological overlap between physical cleanliness and moral purity, we investigate the social significance of workplace cleanliness in two large field samples: a prison and a general work setting. We find that employees who perceive that they work in cleaner organizations tend to report greater perceived ethical climate, are more willing to display citizenship behavior, and less likely to report engaging in antisocial behaviors. Further, we find that the relationships between workplace cleanliness and employees’ work behaviors are mediated by perceived ethical climate. These findings suggest that the psychological link between physical cleanliness and moral purity may apply in work settings with important consequences for employee behavior, and more broadly that the psychological consequences of physical work environment may deserve a renewed interest from organizational scholars.

Embodiment in Moral Judgment

Moral judgment is a kind of evaluation and judgment about certain types of behaviors which individuals make to distinguish good from evil and right from wrong. With the rise of embodied cognition theory, the studies of embodiment in moral judgment are subsequently carried out. Researchers on embodiment in moral judgment mainly focus on three aspects, namely physical cleanliness and disgust, physical temperature and body movement. Researchers explain embodied effect in moral judgment from the perspective of Psychological Development proposed by Piaget and Vygotsky respectively, Conceptual Metaphor Theory and Evolutionary Psychology. Considering the fact that physical variables can influence moral judgment through emotion and cognition, future research should integrate embodied approach of moral judgment with existed theories of moral judgment. And researchers should make clear of the relationship between embodiment in moral judgment and moral intuition. Future research should further explore the timeliness and dynamic, discuss the relevant moderator variables and individual differences, and make cross-cultural comparisons under the perspective of embodied effect.

In-home Health Monitoring System for Solitary Elderly

Abstract In this paper we propose a sensor-based monitoring system that evaluates the health status of solitary elderly based on daily living activities, and provides forecasts of emergency situations to a local nursing center without explicit user interaction. We focus on three daily living activities: urination, kitchen work, and activities related to maintaining physical cleanliness because these activities are closely involved in maintaining a healthy lifestyle and are usually accompanied by the usage of tap water. There is a certain regularity in the usage of tap water in these quotidian activities, and health status is correlated with the regularity. Therefore, the system monitors health status by using water flow sensors which are attached to faucets in the kitchen and washroom and to the toilet. An advantage of this method is that the system can be readily installed in any type of housing at low cost. In addition, this system does not require personal data to be saved or transmitted. We will present the initial results from an experiment.

Does Cleanliness Influence Moral Judgments?

Schnall, Benton, and Harvey (2008) hypothesized that physical cleanliness reduces the severity of moral judgments. In support of this idea, they found that individuals make less severe judgments when they are primed with the concept of cleanliness (Exp. 1) and when they wash their hands after experiencing disgust (Exp. 2). We conducted direct replications of both studies using materials supplied by the original authors. We did not find evidence that physical cleanliness reduced the severity of moral judgments using samples sizes that provided over .99 power to detect the original effect sizes. Our estimates of the overall effect size were much smaller than estimates from Experiment 1 (original d = −0.60, 95% CI [−1.23, 0.04], N = 40; replication d = −0.01, 95% CI [−0.28, 0.26], N = 208) and Experiment 2 (original d = −0.85, 95% CI [−1.47, −0.22], N = 43; replication d = 0.01, 95% CI [−.34, 0.36], N = 126). These findings suggest that the population effect sizes are probably substantially smaller than the original estimates. Researchers investigating the connections between cleanliness and morality should therefore use large sample sizes to have the necessary power to detect subtle effects.

La mente moral corporizada: aproximación a la naturaleza embodied de la cognición moral

Diversos estudios realizados durante la última década sugieren que la cognición moral está ampliamente sustentada en procesos psicológicos automáticos. En este contexto, la correspondencia psicológica existente entre ciertos estados corporales y ciertos procesos cognitivos (embodiment) ha sido ampliamente documentada en los estudios relacionados con la moralidad. Por consiguiente, la presente revisión tiene como objetivo esclarecer la naturaleza del componente corpóreo de nuestra cognición moral, con especial énfasis en la relación interdependiente entre la emoción de repugnancia, la sensación de limpieza física y los juicios morales. Se concluye que si bien la automaticidad de la cognición moral parece facilitar la ocurrencia del embodiment, la evidencia sugiere que la naturaleza de las metáforas corpóreas implicadas en nuestra vida moral es variable.

The Effect of Physical Cleaning on Threatened Morality in Individuals With Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder

The association between morality and physical cleansing has been demonstrated in a series of studies by Zhong and Liljenquist. We predicted that this association would be especially prominent in people with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). Participants with OCD and matched control participants wrote about an immoral deed they had committed, after which half of the participants in each group cleaned their hands with a wipe. All participants were then offered an opportunity to help a fictitious graduate student by taking part in her experiment. Replicating previous findings, physical cleaning reduced the willingness to help and relieved moral emotions. As predicted, this effect was particularly prominent among participants with OCD. We discuss two processes that may account for the association between morality and cleanliness in general and particularly in the context of OCD: embodiment of morality in terms of physical cleanliness and assigning abstract meaning to the physical actions of cleaning.

Embodied metaphors and emotions in the moralization of restrained eating practices

Moralization is the process whereby preferences are converted to values. Two studies used an embodied metaphor approach, in which moral metaphors are grounded in one's sense of physical cleanliness, to investigate whether restrained eating practices are moralized among women. Specifically, we predicted that the restraint of food by women is embodied in their feelings of physical cleanliness. Study 1 found that failures of restrained eating (i.e., overeating) increased accessibility of physical cleanliness-related words for women, but not men. Study 2 found that increased negative moral emotions fully mediated the effect of overeating on a desire for physical cleanliness. Overall, the studies argue for the importance of morality in restrained eating and in the central role of emotions in the embodiment of cognitive metaphors.

A clean self can render harsh moral judgment

Physical cleanliness has many medical benefits, such as protection from the dangers of contagion. We explore a potential unintended consequence of cleanliness. Given the metaphorical association between physical cleanliness and moral purity ( Zhong & Liljenquist, 2006), we contend that a clean self may also be linked to a virtuous self. This enhanced moral self-perception can in turn license harsher moral judgment. Three experiments found that cleanliness, whether induced via physical cleansing or through a visualization task, licensed severe judgment on morally contested issues such as abortion and pornography. Further, we found that an inflated moral self mediated the relationship between cleanliness and moral judgment. These results provide unique insight to the social significance of cleanliness and may have important implications for discrimination and prejudice.

The “good” old days? Disease, despair, and dying young

What about the reality of the ‘‘good old days’’? In this chapter, we’ll review the health history of those days and demonstrate that health in times past may not have been as good as we imagine. Indeed, the image of health in the ‘‘good old days’’ is usually ignored, often idealized in historical representations in books, movies, and television. Because of this, many people imagine that generations in prior history were fortunate, experiencing little disease; clean air and water; and lots of good, wholesome food. With this comes a sense that hygiene and cleanliness practices in the ‘‘good old days’’ were sufficient and would be protective in our daily lives today. Since few of us experienced those days, we depend on historical records, which can be manipulated and misinterpreted. Moreover, many people have different perceptions about what constitutes a historical record. Many of our impressions about the past are based on images created in movies and historical novels, not on data. We identify with royal heroes, aristocratic heroines, dashing adventurers, dramatic events, and happy endings. But rarely do movies and novels describe the ugliness of smallpox, the pathos of infant diarrhea, and the rotting piles of waste. They hardly deal with the daily struggle and misery of the common people, nor the filth, disease, and suffering that they experienced. Let’s look at the historical record and see what those ‘‘good old days’’ were really like. . . FILTH AND WASTE We know that the ancient Romans developed sewers and public baths, the Greeks were concerned with physical beauty, clean skin, and healthy diets, and the Talmud (ca. 2,000 BC) promoted physical cleanliness as a prerequisite to physical and spiritual health. But Europe during the Middle Ages went a thousand years without a bath, and sanitation was as foreign as the toga! By the 19th century in Europe, the public sanitation practices and aims of ancient Greece and Rome had been lost. Europe during the Middle Ages went a thousand years without a bath! Some insights into the causes behind this development come from John Simon, who claimed that the sanitary practices of the Romans and Greeks were in direct conflict with the monastic and ascetic values of

An exploratory study into the factors that influence patients' perceptions of cleanliness in an acute NHS trust hospital

PurposeIf NHS hospitals wish to influence patients to choose them and, as the literature review suggests, cleanliness will be a key‐influencing factor in making that choice, it would seem important for hospitals to understand what factors lead people to decide whether a hospital is clean or dirty. The research aims to identify what the key factors are that influence patients' perceptions of cleanliness and to rank these factors in order of importance.Design/methodology/approachThe project utilised a mixed methodology to collect the data. The hospital staff and people who had been recent patients took part in focus groups in order to gather their views. The current hospital in‐patients were surveyed through the use of a paper questionnaire.FindingsThe main themes that influence the perceptions of cleanliness emerging from the analysis can be summarised under three broad headings – appearance of the environment, physical cleanliness and staff behaviour. The findings suggest that this subject is much more complex than the production of a list. The appearance of the environment is a complex set of perceptions based on what individuals believe to be important, what they observe and what they expect. The research suggests that the appearance of the environment is the most important factor.Originality/valueThe paper starts to explore the factors that influence patient perception of cleanliness and provides practical information to NHS estates and facilities managers.

Changing an Organization's Culture: Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center School of Dentistry's TigerCare Program

Studies have shown that the culture of an organization could be the difference between success and failure in achieving its overall corporate goals and mission. Although some aspects of an organization's culture are visible and tangible, such as the physical structure or overall cleanliness of the facility, other aspects are less tangible but just as apparent, like the helpfulness of the staff and the overall "attitude" of the organization. Private industry discovered many years ago that the key to creating a friendly and productive culture lies in the hands of the employees. TigerCare is a program that engages the civil service employees and provides them with the knowledge and motivation necessary to excel in their jobs and deliver the highest standard of customer service and job performance. It has helped the LSUHSC School of Dentistry develop employees who deliver excellent customer care. This article reports on the specific steps taken to improve the customer service culture and describes the results of the program after two years of implementation.

Striving for purity: shared understandings in retired Swedish care providers' narratives on nursing care around 1950.

Caring for the sick has been important throughout all times. Nursing care has been illuminated from various perspectives. The aim of this study was to illuminate nursing care as narrated by 27 retired care providers in northern Sweden. The themes of cleanliness, order, and clear conscience stood out as important in the text. The results are interpreted as pointing to purity. Purity is a complex phenomenon within the cultural context. Some literature states that in the past, physical cleanliness, moral purity, and order were closely interrelated. Nurses were expected to be religious, morally pure persons in clean and perfect uniforms, always prepared to serve and do their duty. Purity is not always readily apparent. It is often revealed through its absence or opposite. Purity and conscience are seldom addressed in contemporary nursing research. More research is needed to further reflect on purity and its significance for nursing care today.

Management

Management practices and policies have recently been recognized as an important part of the housing environment, particularly in federally assisted housing. The purpose of this paper is to identify some of the dimensions of the relationship between tenant satisfaction with the housing environment and management behaviors and attitudes. Tenant satisfaction is shown to consist of dimensions concerned with neighbors, neighborhood services, the physical unit, security, neighborhood cleanliness, and management. Management is shown to be the most important of these dimensions in explaining tenant satisfaction. Tenant satisfaction with management is shown to consist of four dimensions: maintenance, empathy, responsiveness, and strictness. Tenant satisfaction with maintenance is the most important of these variables in explaining tenant satisfaction with management. Tenant satisfaction with maintenance, however, is not related so much to the amount of money spent as it is to the response time of management toward tenant requests.

Disinfection of New Water Mains

The “AWWA Standard for Disinfecting Water Mains” (AWWA C601‐68) has fallen into disuse by a number of water utilities because of repeated bacteriological failures following initial disinfection with the recommended high‐dose chlorination. Other methods of disinfection, including the use of potassium permanganate and copper sulfate, do not alleviate this problem. Physical cleanliness of new mains is of primary importance and may result in successful disinfection with the low free‐chlorine residuals in distribution‐line water.