Chapman H A, Kim D A, Susskind J M, Anderson A K
Department of Psychology, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario M5S 3G3, Canada.
Science. 2009 Feb 27;323(5918):1222-6. doi: 10.1126/science.1165565.
In common parlance, moral transgressions "leave a bad taste in the mouth." This metaphor implies a link between moral disgust and more primitive forms of disgust related to toxicity and disease, yet convincing evidence for this relationship is still lacking. We tested directly the primitive oral origins of moral disgust by searching for similarity in the facial motor activity evoked by gustatory distaste (elicited by unpleasant tastes), basic disgust (elicited by photographs of contaminants), and moral disgust (elicited by unfair treatment in an economic game). We found that all three states evoked activation of the levator labii muscle region of the face, characteristic of an oralnasal rejection response. These results suggest that immorality elicits the same disgust as disease vectors and bad tastes.
通俗来讲，道德违规行为“会让人嘴里泛起一股怪味”。这个比喻暗示了道德厌恶与与毒性和疾病相关的更原始的厌恶形式之间的联系，但这种关系的令人信服的证据仍然缺乏。我们通过寻找味觉厌恶（由难吃的味道引发）、基本厌恶（由污染物照片引发）和道德厌恶（由经济游戏中的不公平待遇引发）所诱发的面部肌肉活动的相似性，直接测试了道德厌恶的原始口腔起源。我们发现，这三种状态都会引起面部提上唇肌区域的激活，这是口鼻排斥反应的特征。这些结果表明，不道德行为引发的厌恶与病媒和难吃的味道引发的厌恶相同。
