People who wash their hands before a task feel more optimistic about the end result but don't necessarily perform better, University of Cologne researchers find.
The next time you're nervous about a task, just wash your hands! At least that's what the findings of a new study suggest. University of Cologne researchers came to this conclusion after conducting a study on 98 participants. The participants were divided into three groups.
For the first part of the study, two groups were given an impossible task to complete, which they obviously failed. Two groups were asked to wash their hands after completing the task while the other was not. All three groups were then given another task to complete. Researchers noted that though the first two groups were most optimistic about performing well in the second task, the level of optimism was higher in the group that washed their hands.
However, this didn't enhance their performance. In fact, they performed worse than the participants who didn't wash their hands. Their performance was in level with the third group who was the least optimistic about their performance as they had not taken part in the first task.
Researchers of the study concluded that though physical cleansing after failure removes all negative thoughts about failing, it decreases the motivation to try harder in the test task. However, this method of physical cleansing can definitely be used by some people to deal with failure in a better manner.
The Junior Professor for Social and Media Psychology Dr. Kai Kaspar from the University of Cologne said that more studies need to be conducted on the rituals of washing from a psychological point of view.
Washing of hands is also a religious Jewish ritual. Though in current times people wash their hands to merely clean themselves, the origin of this law is biblical (Exodus 30:17-21). Moses was commanded to make a copper laver and to place it at the entrance to the alter area so that Aaron and his sons could wash their hands before approaching the alter to offer sacrifices. The washing of hands made them ritually pure. This symbolic expression of washing away impurity from one's hands dates back to Temple times, when the Priests (Kohanim) devoted their lives to the Temple and its sacrificial system. Before performing any ritual, a Kohein was required to wash his hands, making himself pure and ready to offer as sacrifice.
When the Temple was destroyed in 70 CE, the table in a home came to represent the Temple alter. The bread placed on it symbolized the offerings that were once brought to the Priests. The Sages, who believed that the Temple and the Priesthood would be restored, did not want the practice of washing hands before handling an offering or performing a ritual to be forgotten, and so washing the hands before a meal was strictly enforced. Today, Orthodox and traditional Jews still wash their hands before eating bread.
The cleansing ritual is followed in several other religions like Islam and Hinduism.
