A new study released last month found that straight conservatives feel the need to “physically cleanse” themselves after contact with a gay man.
A set of four experiments, conducted by the University of London and the University Institute of Lisbon, found that prejudice may be “expressed through physical cleansing.”
The studies involved more than 200 participants who imagined borrowing a mobile phone from a straight man and a gay man. They performed word completion and association tasks afterward. Conservative participants expressed a greater preference for wipes and hand sanitizers.
“Labeling people as impure is a culturally universal way of expressing prejudice,” said lead researcher Agnieszka Golec de Zavala.
