Disgust research is all the rage

Here's an interesting read from the New York Times on the recent surge in research on the emotion of disgust:

Disgust is the Cinderella of emotions. While fear, sadness and anger, its nasty, flashy sisters, have drawn the rapt attention of psychologists, poor disgust has been hidden away in a corner, left to muck around in the ashes.

No longer. Disgust is having its moment in the light as researchers find that it does more than cause that sick feeling in the stomach. It protects human beings from disease and parasites, and affects almost every aspect of human relations, from romance to politics.

 Personally, I think this research isn't exactly "new" but I find recent work on disgust and political attitudes fascinating. After all, much of what divides people politically regards morality and what we see as immoral is often very closely tied to our disgust reactions. If this sounds interesting, I encourage you to check out the work of Jonathan Haidt.

Ed

Ed enjoys all forms of entertainment and has an unnatural love for quantitative methodology. He operates out of a basement in Northern Virginia (@edomaniac).

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