Lee and Schwarz (L&S) outline a comprehensive model of how cleansing and other grounded procedures serve a common purpose, namely to achieve a sense of separation. A key question, however, is why people aim to keep objects physically or psychologically separate from other entities. In other words, what is the benefit of doing so? One possibility is that such actions allow individuals to more easily keep track of what is important to them. Indeed, Schnall (Reference Schnall2017) proposed that disgust can be considered to form part of a behavioral loss aversion system, with a conservation concern aimed at maximizing available resources. Physical cleansing serves to ensure the integrity of one's most precious commodity: a healthy body. It not only removes contaminants, but also facilitates a more general assessment of one's physical health. Taking such an inventory does not require disgust, however; the latter only arises when a threat to resources is perceived.

A key requirement to meeting this goal is to know where the relevant boundaries are, or, as the anthropologist Mary Douglas (Reference Douglas1966) put it, to establish what is “matter out of place” (see also Duschinsky, Schnall, & Weiss, Reference Duschinsky, Schnall and Weiss2017). Implicit in this understanding is the metaphor of the body as a container (Schnall, Reference Schnall, Landau, Robinson and Meier2014), which involves a differentiation between what is “inside” and “outside,” and the boundaries arising from this distinction. Physical cleansing and separation facilitate a clearer appreciation of such boundaries, and establish the integrity of individual parts. Importantly, making previously joint entities identifiable also makes them countable, and the process of taking stock of material resources enables one to evaluate the use of individual objects. Indeed, it has been proposed that the number sense, that is, the ability to intuitively understand changes in quantities, is the result of a domain-specific cognitive mechanism that is already present in young infants (Wynn, Reference Wynn1998), and in a rudimentary form exists even in animals (Gallistel & Gelman, Reference Gallistel and Gelman2000). Thus, grounded procedures readily make apparent everything that counts.

To outline this logic, we consider a psychological condition for which excessive cleanliness coincides with a desire for keeping the environment orderly: obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). Although engaging in repetitive cleansing such as handwashing is typically thought of as the most prominent feature of the disorder, it often also involves a compulsion for counting (i.e., arithmomania) (American Psychiatric Association, 2013). For example, this can manifest itself in counting the bricks in a wall, or not wanting to step outside of tiles on the floor during walking. The obsession with counting can be seen as an amplified expression of grounded procedures of separation, involving a fixation not only on cleanliness, but also on quantities of material objects. Thus, it is plausible that one goal behind separation procedures is to provide assurance that one has what one needs, and for some people this is a constantly salient worry.

Also relevant in this context is OCD's close cousin, namely obsessive-compulsive personality disorder (OCPD). It not only involves a desire for cleanliness, but also a preoccupation with details, orderliness, cognitive rigidity, and miserliness – an inability to discard objects and a reluctance to spend money (American Psychiatric Association, 2013). In particular, cognitive rigidity, or the unwillingness to compromise, and the aversion to discard resources, is an example of the overlap between mental representations and sensorimotor modalities. That is, individuals with OCPD are reluctant to relinquish their beliefs as well as their belongings. Furthermore, they are precise with respect to how items are organized, such as the exact arranging of furniture, precise positioning of cushions, preference for set locations for belongings, distaste for untidy rooms, and care with their clothes (Wellen et al., Reference Wellen, Samuels, Bienvenu, Grados, Cullen, Riddle, Liang and Nestadt2007). Such tidiness and particularity with the positioning of one's possessions suggest that this condition may be a extreme expression of the grounded procedures L&S describe.

Many psychiatric conditions fall on the extreme end of a continuum of thoughts and behaviors that, in moderation, are typically adaptive. Indeed, people often find it hard to give them up because such symptoms can come with undeniable benefits. For example, although OCPD is often debilitating with regard to personal relationships, it can be advantageous for career success: OCPD was found to be positively correlated with status and wealth, as measured by socioeconomic status, supervisory responsibilities at work, home ownership, and spacious living conditions (Ullrich, Farrington, & Coid, Reference Ullrich, Farrington and Coid2007). This may be because of the fact that individuals with OCPD show less temporal discounting than those without the condition – that is, they are superior at running the cost–benefit analyses that leaves them better-off in the long run (Pinto, Steinglass, Greene, Weber, & Simpson, Reference Pinto, Steinglass, Greene, Weber and Simpson2014).

Keeping track of what one owns has clear benefits in general, but it is especially useful in times of scarcity or crisis, and when preparing for possible adversity. For example, highly successful navy submarine personnel were found to score highly on OCPD measures and adherence to rules and regulations (Moes, Lall, & Johnson, Reference Moes, Lall and Johnson1996). Indeed, grounded procedures are essential in the military, where every item is carefully inventoried and tracked: there is no room for error in assessing equipment when lives are literally at stake.

Grounded procedures involving resource concerns, whether expressed in normal or exaggerated forms, are especially adaptive under conditions of widespread contagious disease, as is the case for the current COVID-19 pandemic. When individuals need to stay away from others who pose a risk of infection, social relationships no longer constitute a source of support. In the early days of the pandemic, stockpiling supplies was maligned in the media as “panic buying.” But accumulating materials goods, and monitoring their use and availability, are adaptive when there is a constant threat to one's health. Indeed, in uncertain times it is sensible to run a life's inventory, and ensure that all that is precious is in its rightful place.