Psychologists have long studied whether sensitivity to disgust helps explain political attitudes. A review of 24 studies found that people who say they feel disgust more easily tend to hold more conservative views on social issues. Researchers caution, however, that the evidence does not show which comes first—and the connection appears relatively small.
Disgust can refer to different reactions. The Three-Domain Disgust Scale, developed in 2009, distinguishes pathogen disgust, triggered by potential sources of infection such as spoiled food or bodily waste; sexual disgust, relating to certain sexual behaviors or situations; and moral disgust, a response to conduct considered wrong, such as cruelty or betrayal. Researchers still debate whether moral disgust is a physical feeling or a form of moral disapproval.
One explanation for the link with conservatism draws on disease avoidance. University of British Columbia psychologist Yoel Inbar says sensitivity to potential sources of infection may be connected to caution and a preference for traditional social norms. But he says the evidence is not as strong as he would like, and a new study found no statistically significant association between pathogen disgust and conservative views.
Disgust is not exclusive to conservatives, and political groups may find different things repulsive. A 2020 study found that conservatives reported more disgust toward examples involving sexual behavior and drug use, while liberals reported more toward animal abuse and environmental pollution. When asked how often they felt disgust in general, the groups showed no clear difference.
Some early studies suggested conservatives had stronger physical reactions to disturbing or repulsive images, measured in part through changes in sweating. Later research, including a 2020 study led by political psychologist Bert Bakker of the University of Amsterdam, struggled to reproduce those findings. Surveys, by contrast, have generally found an association between conservative attitudes and reporting that one feels disgust more easily.
A study of 632 American adults by Manos Tsakiris and Mariana von Mohr examined whether people’s awareness of signals from their own bodies might help explain the results. This ability, known as interoception, involves perceiving sensations such as hunger, breathing, or a faster heartbeat. The researchers found that participants who were more easily troubled by sexual behavior tended to be more conservative, regardless of their reported bodily awareness. The link between moral disgust and conservatism appeared only among participants who reported less awareness of their bodily signals. Bodily awareness itself was not directly associated with political views.
Inbar has questioned whether all types of disgust are equally useful for studying politics. He and Joshua Tybur, one of the creators of the Three-Domain Disgust Scale, favor focusing on pathogen disgust rather than sexual disgust, arguing that questions about sexual disgust may partly measure conservative beliefs about sexuality. Inbar says the findings on bodily awareness and disgust need to be replicated in further studies with hypotheses established in advance, describing the current conclusions as suggestive at most.
The research cannot determine whether disgust influences political beliefs or whether existing beliefs shape what people describe as repulsive. Bakker notes that political convictions may also affect how people describe their own personalities, while Inbar warns that the relationship is only one of many influences on political views. Tsakiris argues that people should question their emotional reactions to provocative content and listen to perspectives different from their own.
Sources: Folha Ciência.