Shakespeare's Lady Macbeth may have had the right idea when she scrubbed her hands following the murder of King Duncan. An odd new study suggests that hand washing may help people deal with the emotional consequences of decisions--and not just big decisions, like whether or not to participate in regicide, but also minor calls, like which free CD to take home.
[Psychology researcher Spike W. S. Lee] and a colleague named Norbert Schwarz decided to test hand washing's effect on one kind of bad feeling: the lingering tension we feel after being forced to choose between two attractive options, because picking one option makes us feel that we've lost the other. Psychologists know that people usually try to soothe this inner conflict by later exaggerating the positive aspects of their choice. "In other words, after they make the choice, they will like the chosen option more than before the choice," ...
