A uniter and a divider: Purity keeps us together -- and apart

Science Daily ^ | February 2, 2016 | University of Southern California

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The study, led by USC researchers, combined computer science, moral psychology and sociology of networks research techniques to determine how five basic moral concerns -- care/harm, fairness/cheating, loyalty/betrayal, authority/subversion and purity/degradation -- may widen or narrow the social distance between people.

"Concerns about purity could have to do with physical purity, like disgust or cleansing, but also a kind of spiritual purity -- things like treating the body like a temple instead of a playground, resisting our lower carnal desires in favor of a higher, divine nature," Graham said. "It has a spiritual-moral dimension to it, but it's not necessarily explicitly religious."

As with the previous studies, purity was the big mover. Those in the purity similarity condition wanted to be closer to the other person than those in the other condition. Again, the researchers found this effect was not attributable to ideology, religiosity, severity or frequency of the scenarios.

[Phinneous]

That’s why I ain’t nevah gone give up my ablutions of the hands.

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