The clean environment makes us more generous

A study shows that people will be more fair and generous in a clean environment.

Livesicence said that American scientists from Northwestern University and Brigham Young University conducted two tests for a group of volunteers to test the environmental impact of human behavior and thinking.

In the first experiment, experts divided volunteers into two groups. One group was put into clean rooms and sprayed with lemon-scented perfume. The other group entered the rooms which were slightly dirty and had no smell. Scientists told volunteers that they received $ 12 from an unnamed person in another room. Volunteers must choose one of two options: pay an unnamed person an amount or keep it.

The results showed that the average amount of money that the clean room volunteers returned to the anonymous was 5.33 USD. The people in the messy room only returned an average of 2.81 USD.

" So we can see cleanliness and morality go hand in hand, " said Adam Galinsky, a member of the research team.

In the second test the team presented a humanitarian project in front of volunteers. They then asked volunteers to show their level of interest in the project by marking a scale from 0 to 7. The results show that the average level of interest in the clean room is 4.21, while the average of the average group in the room is only 3.29. When the research team asked to contribute money to the project, 22% of the volunteers in the clean room responded, compared with 6% in the other group.

Later interviews showed that volunteers did not pay attention to the scent in the room.

" Scientists have long known that scent can affect people's behavior and thinking. Our research contributes to proving that point, " Galinsky said.

Northwestern University's study will be published in detail in the journal Psychological Science .

A previous study showed that those who committed crimes tend to cleanse the body. Another test, conducted by Plymouth University (UK) last year, demonstrated that people's ability to correctly identify wrong people decreases after we bathe or wash our hands well.