Inhibition plays a crucial role in reducing intrusive thoughts and compulsive behaviors, such as handwashing, in response to the feeling of disgust. The current study examines whether manipulating arousal can facilitate inhibition and the resistance of compulsive cleansing. Forty-seven participants with high contamination fears were recruited for this study. Participants were divided into a caffeine group or a no-caffeine group. Participants touched a potentially contaminated and disgusting stimulus (“dirty” diapers) and were asked to wait as long as they could before washing their hands. Only the caffeine group exhibited greater pre-post stop-signal reaction time improvement in the stop-signal task, indicating improved inhibition. Participants in the caffeine group exhibited significantly lower subjective distress and urges-to-wash their hands both after touching the stimulus and while waiting to engage in the cleansing behavior. Similarly, the caffeine group resisted the urge to compulsively cleanse for about twice as long as those in the no-caffeine group. Time spent washing, subjective distress levels, and urge-to-wash levels after participants washed their hands were similar between groups. The current findings support the notion that increased arousal improves inhibition, which may play a role in improving our ability to resist intrusive disgust and compulsive cleansing behaviors.

抑制在减少厌恶感引起的侵入性思想和强迫行为（例如洗手）中起着至关重要的作用。当前的研究检查操纵唤醒是否可以促进抑制和强制性清洁的抵抗力。这项研究招募了47名具有高度污染担忧的参与者。参与者分为咖啡因组或无咖啡因组。参与者触摸了可能被污染和令人恶心的刺激物（“脏”尿布），并被要求在洗手之前要等待尽可能长的时间。只有咖啡因组在停止信号任务中表现出更大的停止后信号，改善了抑制信号。咖啡因组的参与者表现出明显较低的主观困扰，并且在触摸刺激后和等待进行清洁行为时都敦促要洗手。同样，咖啡因组抵制强迫清洁的冲动时间是非咖啡因组的两倍。各组参与者洗手后的洗时间，主观困扰水平和催促洗时间相似。当前的发现支持这样的观点，即增加的觉醒可以改善抑制作用，这可能在提高我们抵抗侵入性厌恶和强迫性清洁行为的能力中起作用。咖啡因组抵制强迫清洁的冲动时间是非咖啡因组的两倍。各组参与者洗手后的洗时间，主观困扰水平和催促洗时间相似。当前的发现支持这样的观点，即增加的觉醒可以改善抑制作用，这可能在提高我们抵抗侵入性厌恶和强迫性清洁行为的能力中起作用。咖啡因组抵制强迫清洁的冲动时间是非咖啡因组的两倍。各组参与者洗手后的洗时间，主观困扰水平和催促洗时间相似。当前的发现支持这样的观点，即增加的觉醒可以改善抑制作用，这可能在提高我们抵抗侵入性厌恶和强迫性清洁行为的能力中起作用。