scholarly journals Body odour disgust sensitivity predicts authoritarian attitudes

2018 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 171091 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marco Tullio Liuzza ◽  
Torun Lindholm ◽  
Caitlin B. Hawley ◽  
Marie Gustafsson Sendén ◽  
Ingrid Ekström ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Political Psychology ◽  
Positive Association ◽  
Social Attitudes ◽  
Research Topic ◽  
Psychology Research ◽  
Disgust Sensitivity ◽  
Disease Avoidance ◽  
Donald Trump ◽  
Interpersonal Contact ◽  
Body Odour

Authoritarianism has resurfaced as a research topic in political psychology, as it appears relevant to explain current political trends. Authoritarian attitudes have been consistently linked to feelings of disgust, an emotion that is thought to have evolved to protect the organism from contamination. We hypothesized that body odour disgust sensitivity (BODS) might be associated with authoritarianism, as chemo-signalling is a primitive system for regulating interpersonal contact and disease avoidance, which are key features also in authoritarianism. We used well-validated scales for measuring BODS, authoritarianism and related constructs. Across two studies, we found that BODS is positively related to authoritarianism. In a third study, we showed a positive association between BODS scores and support for Donald Trump, who, at the time of data collection, was a presidential candidate with an agenda described as resonating with authoritarian attitudes. Authoritarianism fully explained the positive association between BODS and support for Donald Trump. Our findings highlight body odour disgust as a new and promising domain in political psychology research. Authoritarianism and BODS might be part of the same disease avoidance framework, and our results contribute to the growing evidence that contemporary social attitudes might be rooted in basic sensory functions.

scholarly journals Body odor disgust sensitivity predicts authoritarian attitudes.

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marco Tullio Liuzza ◽  
Torun Lindholm ◽  
Caitlin Hawley ◽  
Marie Gustafsson Sendén ◽  
Ingrid Anamaria Ekström ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Political Psychology ◽  
Positive Association ◽  
Social Attitudes ◽  
Research Topic ◽  
Psychology Research ◽  
Disgust Sensitivity ◽  
Disease Avoidance ◽  
Donald Trump ◽  
Interpersonal Contact ◽  
Body Odour

Authoritarianism has resurfaced as a research topic in political psychology, as it appears rele-vant to explain current political trends. Authoritarian attitudes have been consistently linked to feelings of disgust, an emotion that is thought to have evolved to protect the organism from contamination. We hypothesized that body odour disgust sensitivity might be associated with authoritarianism, as chemo-signalling is a primitive system for regulating interpersonal contact and disease avoidance, which are key features also in authoritarianism. We used well-validated scales for measuring body odour disgust sensitivity (BODS), authoritarianism, and related constructs. Across two studies, we found that BODS is positively related to authoritarianism. In a third study, we showed a positive association between BODS scores and support for Donald Trump, who, at the time of data collection, was a presidential candidate with an agenda described as resonating with authoritarian attitudes. Authoritarianism fully explained the positive association between BODS and support for Donald Trump. Our findings highlight body odour disgust as a new and promising domain in political psychology research. Authoritarianism and body odour disgust sensitivity might be part of the same disease avoidance framework, and our results contribute to the growing evidence that contemporary social attitudes might be rooted in basic sensory functions.

scholarly journals Food disgust sensitivity predicts disease-preventing behaviour beyond the food domain in the COVID-19 pandemic in Germany

PLoS ONE ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (7) ◽  
pp. e0254648
Author(s):  
Jeanine Ammann ◽  
Meret Casagrande
Keyword(s):  
Online Survey ◽  
Eating Behaviour ◽  
Personal Hygiene ◽  
Disgust Sensitivity ◽  
Disease Avoidance ◽  
Interpersonal Contact ◽  
Hygiene Behaviour ◽  
Shopping Behaviour ◽  
Preventive Behaviour

In the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic, personal hygiene behaviours such as proper handwashing have gained significantly more attention and interpersonal contact is performed with great care. Disgust, as a disease-avoidance mechanism, can play an important role in the promotion of hygiene behaviour. We know from previous research that pathogen disgust can be a predictor of an individual’s behaviour in the pandemic. Given that the pandemic greatly affects our food and eating behaviour, the current study aims to add to the existing evidence and to complement it by investigating the role of food-specific disgust in the pandemic. For that, we conducted an online survey in Germany in April 2020, while the pandemic was spreading in Europe. A total of 519 participants completed the survey and provided information about their COVID-19-related attitudes and behaviours and about their food disgust sensitivity. The results show that food disgust sensitivity is an important predictor for an individual’s feelings, shopping behaviour, and disease-preventive behaviour related to the COVID-19 pandemic. Given that the success of political measures to fight the pandemic critically depends on the population to support and follow the proposed measures, a better understanding of the factors driving individual behaviour is key. Implications for pandemic management are discussed.

scholarly journals Extending the Behavioral Immune System to Political Psychology: Are Political Conservatism and Disgust Sensitivity Really Related?

2010 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 147470491000800 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joshua M. Tybur ◽  
Leslie A. Merriman ◽  
Ann E. Caldwell Hooper ◽  
Melissa M. McDonald ◽  
Carlos David Navarrete
Keyword(s):  
Immune System ◽  
Political Psychology ◽  
Disgust Sensitivity ◽  
Behavioral Immune System ◽  
Political Conservatism

scholarly journals Strategies for Promoting Strong Inferences in Political Psychology Research

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anthony N. Washburn ◽  
Linda Skitka
Keyword(s):  
Political Psychology ◽  
Hypothesis Generation ◽  
Positive Test ◽  
Psychology Research ◽  
Social Psychological ◽  
Negative Test ◽  
Test Strategies ◽  
Grid Approach ◽  
And Behavior ◽  
Researcher Bias

The goals of this chapter are to first describe two common pitfalls of social psychological approaches to the study of ideological differences, specifically, a pre-occupation with explaining conservatives to the neglect of liberals and an over-reliance on positive test strategies. As guards against these potential pit falls, we recommend that researchers shift their orientation toward negative test strategies, something that can be facilitated by using a “grid” approach to hypothesis generation. The grid approach to hypothesis generation forces researchers to consider a set of competing explanations for liberal and conservative thoughts, feelings, and behavior, that vary in possible normative spin, which helps protect against possible researcher bias.

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