Posted on 06/05/2009 4:48:53 AM PDT by Behind Liberal Lines
Are you someone who squirms when confronted with slime, shudders at stickiness or gets grossed out by gore? Do crawly insects make you cringe or dead bodies make you blanch?
If so, chances are you're more conservative -- politically, and especially in your attitudes toward gays and lesbians -- than your less-squeamish counterparts, according to two Cornell studies.
The results, said study leader David Pizarro, Cornell assistant professor of psychology, raise questions about the role of disgust -- an emotion that likely evolved in humans to keep them safe from potentially hazardous or disease-carrying environments -- in contemporary judgments of morality and purity.
In the first study, published in the journal Cognition & Emotion (Vol.23: No.4), Pizarro and co-authors Yoel Inbar of Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government and Paul Bloom of Yale University surveyed 181 U.S. adults from politically mixed "swing states." They subjected these adults to two indexes: the Disgust Sensitivity Scale (DSS), which offers various scenarios to assess disgust sensitivity, and a political ideology scale. From this they found a correlation between being more easily disgusted and political conservatism.
To test whether disgust sensitivity is linked to specific conservative attitudes, the researchers then surveyed 91 Cornell undergraduates with the DSS, as well as with questions about their positions on issues including gay marriage, abortion, gun control, labor unions, tax cuts and affirmative action.
Participants who rated higher in disgust sensitivity were more likely to oppose gay marriage and abortion, issues that are related to notions of morality or purity. The researchers also found a weak correlation between disgust sensitivity and support for tax cuts, but no link between disgust sensitivity and the other issues.
And in a separate study in the current issue of the journal Emotion (Vol.9: No.3), Pizarro and colleagues found a link between higher disgust sensitivity and disapproval of gays and lesbians. For this study, the researchers used implicit measures (measures that have been shown to assess attitudes people may be unwilling to report explicitly; or that they may not even know they possess).
Liberals and conservatives disagree about whether disgust has a valid place in making moral judgments, Pizarro noted. Conservatives have argued that there is inherent wisdom in repugnance; that feeling disgusted about something -- gay sex between consenting adults, for example -- is cause enough to judge it wrong or immoral, even lacking a concrete reason. Liberals tend to disagree, and are more likely to base judgments on whether an action or a thing causes actual harm.
Studying the link between disgust and moral judgment could help explain the strong differences in people's moral opinions, Pizarro said; and it could offer strategies for persuading some to change their views.
"People have pointed out for a long time that a lot of our moral values seem driven by emotion, and in particular, disgust appears to be one of those emotions that seems to be recruited for moral judgments," said Pizarro.
That can have tragic effects -- as in cases throughout history where minorities have been victims of discrimination by groups that perceived them as having disgusting characteristics.
The research speaks to a need for caution when forming moral judgments, Pizarro added. "Disgust really is about protecting yourself from disease; it didn't really evolve for the purpose of human morality," he said. "It clearly has become central to morality, but because of its origins in contamination and avoidance, we should be wary about its influences."
The studies were funded by Cornell
YES - the liberals have desensified themselves so that nothing bothers them that is wrong, immoral or unethical.
Hollywood has done much to help with this - we no longer have to use our imagination in movies as to “what happened” off screen - it’s ON the screen very graphic.
Well I’m not a big fan of slasher movies or turd burgling but dirt and bugs don’t bother me a bit.
Wonder how liberals react to field dressing a white tail?
What a crock. I dealt with dead bodies regularly as part of my job and it didn’t bother me. However, the thought of killing a baby is abhorrent to me.
Abortion = bugs = slime
Someone is being paid to come up with this nonsense?
Yeah, I get grossed out by Gore.
Every time I see his fat, ugly mug.
I don’t think so. I gross out my liberal girlfriend all the time.
Wonder how liberals react to field dressing a white tail?
Was thinking the exact same thing! I could sit through a slasher movie if I had to, but I have no desire to do so. Today's cinema is garbage.
Far as bugs, slime, eww, goo, etc... no problem, bring it on. I've spent too many hours under the hoods of automobiles and cut up on aluminum computer cases; this is a worthless study.
“...Easily grossed out? You’re more likely a conservative, study says..”
BS! Has anyone ever see a liberal field dress a buck?
I’m very conservative. Having grown up on a farm and after 25 years in health care, I can eat potted meat sandwiches and watch brain surgery. Solid cast iron stomach I have.
what a crock
LLS
I think I vomited a little in my mouth.
Yeah, fudge packing grosses me out. I’m conservative.
We all knew that didn't we?
The modern replacement expression concerning "drinking koolaid" doesn't do justice to the need.
I don't enjoy field dressing, but it's necessary to get the meat!
(liberals think meat comes in nice plastic trays at the supermarket.)
I was at a hunt test this spring, and the gunners gut-shot a mallard. I wondered why my ordinarily well-behaved retriever was putting down the bird, turning it over with her paw, and picking it up again . . . until I took it from her and my hand went right in! It was fairly repulsive, but, hey, all in a day's work.
I think if a nine year old Labrador is grossed out, I have a right to be too.
Agreed!
LOL. This article reads like satire. Sounds like a study with an agenda and not much conclusive data to back it up.
I think its safe to say that conservatives are disgusted by certain abnormal behaviors and liberals seek them out to wallow in them.
Regardless of your feelings on evolution, I think a total separation of conservatives and liberals could lead to some very interesting developments over the eons.
As it will be in the future, it was at the birth of Man
There are only four things certain since Social Progress began.
That the Dog returns to his Vomit and the Sow returns to her Mire,
And the burnt Fool's bandaged finger goes wabbling back to the Fire;
And that after this is accomplished, and the brave new world begins
When all men are paid for existing and no man must pay for his sins,
As surely as Water will wet us, as surely as Fire will burn,
The Gods of the Copybook Headings with terror and slaughter return!
- Mr. Kipling knew what was what. My dogs don't object if it's in verse. They are far more cultured than The One.
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