Be aware of the embedded white supremacy overtones of the "research findings." People respond to white=virtue because that is how racism has played out in our country for the past 500 years. To reverse the colors is contrary to our dominant U.S culture, which continues to draw on racist metaphors.
It is classic conditioning based on Western culture to associate white with purity and black with impurity. Non-western or indigenous cultures do not necessarily have the same tendencies.
To extrapolate the contemporary results to an ancient preoccupation with dirt is ridiculous. Humans only began bathing daily in the last 100 years. Ancient humans had a completely different understanding of the world, and would certainly have different cultural color associations.
It is classic conditioning based on Western culture to associate white with purity and black with impurity. Non-western or indigenous cultures do not necessarily have the same tendencies.
To extrapolate the contemporary results to an ancient preoccupation with dirt is ridiculous. Humans only began bathing daily in the last 100 years. Ancient humans had a completely different understanding of the world, and would certainly have different cultural color associations.