From everyday gestures have become reflexes to protect the environment, the question of the washing machine is rarely considered. And for good reason, according to a team of Swedish scientists, the fear of being judged and perceived as dirty if you don’t wash your clothes after wearing them once.
In their study mentioned by our colleagues from the British daily The Guardian, scientists of Chalmers University of Technology reveal that this feeling leads to excessive use, including among people most concerned about their carbon footprint.
When researchers asked a representative sample of 2,000 people to space out your machines slightly and reduce their number, the fear of being perceived as dirty largely dominates environmental guilt.
“The study shows that the greater our sensitivity to what constitutes disgust, the more we wash, no matter our desire to act for the environment”, confirms Erik Klint, one of the authors of the study. The washing machine is rarely taken into account, despite its consumption of water and energy.
A household launches 4 to 5 machines per week
Thus, the authors of the study conclude that the risk of being rejected by others dominates more abstract intentions, such as that of CO2 emissions.
In Europe, an average household launches four to five machines per week. This figure has remained roughly the same for 20 years, but the capacity of washing machine drums has increased. According to a report commissioned by the French Agency for the Environment and Energy Management, 64% of washing machines have a capacity of 6 kg of laundry in 2015, compared to 6% in 2004. Added to this is the fact that clothes that are less washed will last longer.
According to Eric Klint, this fear of social exclusion is not verified. “In Western countries, people are used to washing clothes that others perceive as clean,” he says, citing another study in which participants reduced the number of their machines without anyone asking. notices it.
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