Washing hands after a failed task makes a person more optimistic to perform the same task better the next time but the performance does not match the optimism, according to a new study conducted by Dr. Kai Kaspar, a Junior Professor for Social and Media Psychology, University of Cologne.

 However, people, who did not wash their hands and were less confident, performed better on their given task in the study.

The findings contradict the popular theory that higher optimism leads to better performance.

The new study indicates that although washing hands improves a person's self-assurance for the next task, it does not translate into actual performance. In contrast,  the 'lower confident' individuals showed enhanced results indicating that they tried harder.

The professor concludes that physical cleansing may help in eliminating an individual's negative feelings and personal uncertainty; but at the same time it also decreases the inspiration to perform better in  future tasks.

The findings of the study were published in the journal Social Psychological and Personality Science.

For the experiment, Kaspar divided 98 participants in three groups.

In the first experiment, Kaspar asked two groups to solve an impossible task. Both the groups failed in the task and they were then asked to wash their hands. They were then asked to perform another task with the third group( which did not participate in the first task). All the participants showed optimism to succeed in the second task. However, the group that washed their hands showed higher optimism.

In the second experiment, the third group, which did not wash its hands, performed considerably better than the groups who washed their hands.