Lady Macbeth effect
{{Short description|Psychological phenomenon}}
{{use mdy dates|date=May 2022}}
File:Gabriel von Max - Lady Macbeth, 1885.jpg depicting Lady Macbeth attempting to clean her hand with the folded edge of her dress]]
The supposed Lady Macbeth effect or Macbeth effect is a priming effect in which feelings of shame appear to increase cleaning and cleanliness-seeking responses. The effect is named after the Lady Macbeth character in the Shakespeare play Macbeth; she imagined bloodstains on her hands after committing murder.
Background
In one experiment, different groups of participants were asked to recall a good or bad past deed, after which they were asked to fill in the letters of three incomplete words: "W_ _H", "SH_ _ER" and "S_ _P". Those who had been asked to recall a bad deed were about 60% more likely to respond with cleansing-related words like "wash", "shower" and "soap" instead of alternatives such as "wish", "shaker" or "stop".{{cite journal|last1=Zhong|first1=Chen-Bo|first2=Katie |last2=Liljenquist |title=Washing Away Your Sins: Threatened Morality and Physical Cleansing|journal=Science|year=2006|volume=313|issue=5792|pages=1451–1452|doi=10.1126/science.1130726|pmid=16960010|citeseerx=10.1.1.181.571|url=http://haniff.sg/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/washing-away-your-sins.pdf|bibcode=2006Sci...313.1451Z|s2cid=33103635 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170809003732/http://haniff.sg/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/washing-away-your-sins.pdf|archive-date=2017-08-09}}
In another experiment, experimenters were able to reduce choice-supportive bias by having subjects engage in forms of self-cleaning.{{cite journal|last1=Lee|first1=Spike W. S.|first2=Norbert|last2= Schwarz |title=Washing away postdecisional dissonance|journal=Science|year=2010|volume=328|issue=5979|pages=709|doi=10.1126/science.1186799|pmid=20448177|bibcode=2010Sci...328..709L|s2cid=18611420 |url=https://semanticscholar.org/paper/a53673ec17fae0c0cc1e493e6a4b52f7ffbb53bb}}
The effect is apparently localized enough that those who had been asked to lie verbally preferred an oral cleaning product and those asked to lie in writing preferred a hand cleaning product over the other kind of cleanser and other control items.{{cite journal|last1=Lee|first1=Spike W. S.|first2=Norbert |last2=Schwarz |title=Dirty Hands and Dirty Mouths: Embodiment of the Moral-Purity Metaphor Is Specific to the Motor Modality Involved in Moral Transgression|journal=Psychological Science|year=2010|volume=21|issue=10|pages=1423–1425|doi=10.1177/0956797610382788|pmid=20817782|s2cid=26639040 |url=https://semanticscholar.org/paper/ca41aabc542e1e15ec93bb56f472389f730f1a67}}
Other researchers have been unable to replicate the basic effect using larger samples.{{cite journal|last=Fayard|first=Jennifer|title=Is cleanliness next to godliness? Dispelling old wives' tales: Failure to replicate Zhong and Liljenquist (2006)|journal=Journal of Articles in Support of the Null Hypothesis|year=2009|volume=6|pages=21–30|url=http://www.jasnh.com/pdf/Vol6-No2.pdf|display-authors=etal|citeseerx=10.1.1.214.2427}}{{Cite journal | doi=10.1080/01973533.2013.856792 |title = Out, Damned Spot: Can the "Macbeth Effect" be Replicated?|journal = Basic and Applied Social Psychology|volume = 36|pages = 91–98|year = 2014|last1 = Earp|first1 = Brian D.|last2 = Everett|first2 = Jim A. C.|last3 = Madva|first3 = Elizabeth N.|last4 = Hamlin|first4 = J. Kiley| s2cid=51472032 |url=https://www.academia.edu/4336726}} Replication difficulties have emerged for three out of four of Zhong and Liljenquist's original studies (i.e., Study 2, Study 3, and Study 4).{{Cite web | url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191031150643if_/https://curatescience.org/sitestatic/legacy/collections/macbeth-effect.html |title = Curate Science - Crowdsourcing the Transparency of Empirical Research}}{{better source needed|date=December 2019}} A meta-analysis of 15 studies examining the relationship between primes related to moral threat and cleansing preferences found a small effect, with no significant relationship evident across 11 studies conducted by researchers other than the original ones.{{cite journal|last1=Siev|first1=Jedidiah|last2=Zuckerman|first2=Shelby E.|last3=Siev|first3=Joseph J.|date=September 2018|title=The Relationship Between Immorality and Cleansing|journal=Social Psychology|volume=49|issue=5|pages=303–309|doi=10.1027/1864-9335/a000349|s2cid=149910586 |url=https://curatescience.org/app/article/300|url-access=subscription}}