I'll have to post the etymology later.
Jan. 19th, 2004 11:15 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
novapsycheDisgust evolved to combat disease
Scientists claim to have found evidence that the emotion of disgust evolved to protect us from the risk of disease.
People found images of things that pose a disease risk consistently more disgusting than similar images of things that hold no risk of disease.
In the web-based experiment, women were also found to be more sensitive to disgust than men and as people aged, their disgust sensitivity dropped.
Details of the research are published in the science journal Biology Letters.
The findings suggest that humans may be biologically programmed to avoid certain things such as faeces, wounds, rotting matter and bodily fluids.
Other researchers have proposed that people largely learn to be disgusted by these things.
[...] Participants in Dr Curtis's study carried out a test on the BBC website which asked them to mark how disgusting different images were.
The images included a muddy football; a clean and infected wound; a louse; a wasp and plates of goo with different colours.
In the last case, for instance, people consistently report the green and yellow goo as more disgusting than the blue, presumably because the former colours resemble bodily fluids.
There is also evidence that animals have a disgust response. They, like humans, tend to avoid each others' faeces.
Scientists claim to have found evidence that the emotion of disgust evolved to protect us from the risk of disease.
People found images of things that pose a disease risk consistently more disgusting than similar images of things that hold no risk of disease.
In the web-based experiment, women were also found to be more sensitive to disgust than men and as people aged, their disgust sensitivity dropped.
Details of the research are published in the science journal Biology Letters.
The findings suggest that humans may be biologically programmed to avoid certain things such as faeces, wounds, rotting matter and bodily fluids.
Other researchers have proposed that people largely learn to be disgusted by these things.
[...] Participants in Dr Curtis's study carried out a test on the BBC website which asked them to mark how disgusting different images were.
The images included a muddy football; a clean and infected wound; a louse; a wasp and plates of goo with different colours.
In the last case, for instance, people consistently report the green and yellow goo as more disgusting than the blue, presumably because the former colours resemble bodily fluids.
There is also evidence that animals have a disgust response. They, like humans, tend to avoid each others' faeces.