Monday, 19 May 2025

EVOLN OF DISGUST - NUDGE US AWAY FROM DANGEROUS MICROBES

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Something else to notice is that, just as the eye is exquisitely designed

to enable vision, so too our psychological adaptations are exquisitely

designed to execute their evolved functions. Consider disgust. People

everywhere find certain items disgusting. These include bodily secretions

(vomit, diarrhea), rotting materials (decomposing carcasses, spoiled food),

and certain animals (such as rats, flies, and maggots). Importantly, the list

of universal disgust elicitors compiled by psychologists is virtually identical

to the list of disease vectors independently compiled by epidemiologists –

exactly as we’d expect if the disgust system were an adaptation designed to

nudge us away from harmful microbes.25

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