In a prior post, I discussed how anxiety may drive people to clean their homes, organize their offices, or wash their cars. Cleaning isn't atop most people's lists of things they enjoy doing -- hence the reason so many with the means hire people to do it for them. I like keeping my condo clean, which is why I try to tidy up at least once a week.  But every now and then, I break out the vacuum cleaner not because the place is a mess, but because I am -- and cleaning helps me unwind.  Perhaps I've had a tough day at work, or my wife and I have just had a terrible argument.  In lieu of taking my frustration out on a punching bag, stress ball, pillow, or some other object, I derive satisfaction from sucking up dust or removing stains. Filthy grime be gone! Perhaps I see them as embodying the negative emotions I'm wrestling -- anger, frustration, disillusionment -- and picture myself quashing such feelings with the aid of a handy broom or duster.  Once I'm done cleaning,...

A new study in the journal of Current Biology establishes a link between temporary anxiety and -- wait for it -- obsessive cleaning. It turns out that being in an anxious state may in fact make people tidy up.  Researchers primed a group of college students into freaking out over a public speaking task. They were presented with a shiny statue and asked to prepare a speech about it in front of a panel of experts. Following the speech, they were told to clean the object. (In addition, there was a control group comprised of students who were not required to give a speech.) Those who had to give the anxiety-inducing speech were more repetitive in how they cleaned. The amount of anxiety the students reported feeling over the task predicted how many repeated movements they made while cleaning, as well as how long they cleaned the object before they deemed it reasonably clean. In times of stress, people might turn to repetitive behavior like cleaning because it gives the...

I know that the answer to this question depends on a whole host of factors, including one's choice of career (lawyers will probably smell and look cleaner than construction workers), whether or not a person has children (parents to a newborn might have less time to shower), and so on. But a study conducted in 2007 by the University of Arizona found that women have three to four times as much bacteria on their personal belongings (desks, phones, keyboards, computers, etc.) as men do. This was attributed to the fact that women not only have more interactions with children, but they keep more food on or near their desks. I know the latter point to be true -- women have more of a tendency to snack at work than my male coworkers do. The other issue, per the study, is makeup. Hand lotions and cosmetics make prime germ-transfer agents. Women also tend to dig into their purses, picking up dust and germs in the process. The truth is that I've smelled body odor on both men and wome...