Morality and soap in engineers and social scientists: the Macbeth effect interacts with professions

Area of Science:

• Psychology
• Cognitive Science
• Social Psychology

Background:

• Physical cleansing actions are effective in coping with threatened morality, suggesting a psychological link between physical and moral purity.
• The Macbeth effect, explained by conceptual metaphor theory, posits an embodiment of the moral purity metaphor.
• Individual differences in the application of conceptual metaphors warrant further investigation.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the interaction between the Macbeth effect and individual differences related to chosen professions.
• To determine if the strength of the Macbeth effect varies between engineering and social science students.

Main Methods:

• Participants from engineering and social science fields were recruited.
• Students hand-copied a text depicting either immoral or moral behavior (control).
• Following the text-copying task, participants rated various products, including cleansing agents.

Main Results:

• Both engineering and social science students showed increased ratings for cleansing products after reading the unethical story.
• The Macbeth effect, indicated by higher cleansing product ratings, was significantly more pronounced in engineering students than in social science students.
• This finding highlights that the Macbeth effect is influenced by individual differences in professional background.

Conclusions:

• The Macbeth effect interacts with individual differences, specifically the chosen profession.
• Results suggest that variations in disgust sensitivity may explain the observed differences between professional groups.
• The study underscores the role of individual characteristics in the manifestation of the Macbeth effect.