The human mind harbors various mechanisms for coping with stress, but what role does physical behavior play? Inspired by ethological observations of autogrooming activity across species, we offer a general hypothesis: cleaning attenuates effects of stressful events. Preregistered behavioral and psychophysiological experiments (N = 3,066 in United Kingdom, United States, and Canada) found that (a) concrete visual simulation of cleaning behavior alleviated residual anxiety from a stress-inducing physical scene, an effect distinct from touch, and (b) actual cleaning behavior enhanced adaptive cardiovascular reactivity to a highly stressful context of social performance/evaluation, which provides the first physiological evidence for the attenuation of stress-related effects by cleaning. Overall, actual cleaning and simulated cleaning attenuate effects of physical or psychological stressors, even when they have nothing to do with contamination or disease and would not be resolved by cleaning. Daily cleaning behavior may facilitate coping with stressors like physical risks and psychological threats to the self.
As COVID-19 spread in the United States, anti-East Asian bias increased. This article aimed to (1) show that thinking about COVID-19 heightened East Asian individuals' anxious expectations of discrimination and (2) explore these expectations' health correlates. Specifically, the paper focused on COVID-19-triggered race-based rejection sensitivity, defined as (1) East Asian individuals' expectations of rejection due to the stereotype that they spread the virus and (2) high levels of anxiety about this possibility. Study 1 (N = 412) showed that reminders of COVID-19 increased COVID-19-triggered race-based rejection sensitivity among Chinese citizens living in the United States and East Asian Americans, but not Americans of other races. Study 2 (N = 473) demonstrated that East Asian people who habitually focused on COVID-19 experienced greater COVID-19-triggered race-based rejection sensitivity and, in turn, greater sleep difficulties. Thus, societal-level shifts that target minoritized groups may increase minoritized group members' concerns about discrimination in ways that undermine their health.

