Disgust Sensitivity and the Neurophysiology of Left-Right Political Orientations
"Given its primal nature and essential value in avoiding pathogens disgust likely has an effect even without registering in conscious beliefs."
© 2011 Smith et al *
Abstract
Disgust has been described as the most primitive and central of emotions. Thus, it is not surprising that it shapes behaviors in a variety of organisms and in a variety of contexts—including homo sapien politics. People who believe they would be bothered by a range of hypothetical disgusting situations display an increased likelihood of displaying right-of-center rather than left-of-center political orientations. Given its primal nature and essential value in avoiding pathogens disgust likely has an effect even without registering in conscious beliefs. In this article, we demonstrate that individuals with marked involuntary physiological responses to disgusting images, such as of a man eating a large mouthful of writhing worms, are more likely to self-identify as conservative and, especially, to oppose gay marriage than are individuals with more muted physiological responses to the same images. This relationship holds even when controlling for the degree to which respondents believe themselves to be disgust sensitive and suggests that people's physiological predispositions help to shape their political orientations.
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* This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
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Can Politics Make You Vomit? Of course.
by Will Oremus
"On Sunday, Rick Santorum told ABC’s George Stephanopoulos that the idea of absolute separation of church and state “makes me want to throw up.” In October, the GOP candidate said he “almost threw up” reading John F. Kennedy’s 1960 speech on the topic. Can just thinking about something you find morally objectionable cause you to lose your lunch?"
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When Evidence Is Powerless
by Salman Hameed
"It seems that for many there is no connection between belief and evidence. If evidence is powerless, what are some other factors that shape their beliefs, and what are the implications for science education?"
Video from TEDxPioneerValley (19 minutes)...
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