Dirty because of lying

After lying, people feel their hands and mouth are dirty and want to clean those parts.

Artwork: webmd.com.

A group of University of Michigan psychologists want to understand how people feel after lying.Telegraph said, they invited 87 people to participate in a test. The team asked volunteers to imagine they were lawyers and competed with a colleague named Chris for promotion in the company.

Experts set the situation: Volunteers accidentally picked up an important document of Chris. If he returned the documents to Chris, he could be praised and promoted by his boss, and the volunteers would have nothing. When Chris asks the volunteer to pick up his documents, each person can answer him by voice mail or email (ie, do not talk directly). Immediately after the test volunteers were asked to select some products - such as soap, mouthwash, and hand sanitizer - on a questionnaire. Experts say it is a survey of consumer tastes to distract volunteers.

The results show that for those who lie to Chris via voicemail, mouthwash is the product they want the most. Compared to those who tell the truth, they are willing to pay more to buy mouthwash. Meanwhile, those who lie through e-mail tend to choose soap or hand-washing liquid. In contrast, mouthwash, soap and hand washing solutions are not the first choice for those who tell the truth.

Spike Lee, the leader of the research team, commented that while morality is an abstract concept, people always feel filthy presence on the body after we commit acts that are contrary to morality.

' Liars always want to clean up the parts of the body that engage in moral inappropriate behavior ,' Lee said.