Facultad de Psicología, Universitat de les Illes Balears, 07122 Palma de Mallorca, Spain.
Psicothema. 2013;25(2):222-6. doi: 10.7334/psicothema2012.159.
Disgust is, at its core, an emotion that responds to cues of parasites and infection, likely to be evolved to protect human organism from the risk of disease. Interestingly, a growing body of research implicates disgust as an emotion central to human morality. The fact that disgust is associated with appraisals of moral transgressions and that this emotion influences moral judgments implies a remarkable puzzle: Why does an emotion that originally functions in the domain of infectious entities become such a good candidate to play the role of a moral arbiter? The aim of the present review is to clarify the nature of the relationship between disgust and morality.
First, we examine the relevant features of disgust in order to explore whether the phenomenology of disgust favors its implementation as a defensive mechanism against offensive social entities. Second, we critically review the most striking findings about the effects of disgust on moral judgments.
The revisited analysis of the literature strongly suggests a bidirectional causal link between disgust and moral cognition.
We propose that the particular phenomenology of disgust (which involves a sense of offensiveness and rejection) favored the co-adaptation of this emotion to the moral domain.
厌恶感本质上是一种对寄生虫和感染迹象做出反应的情绪，它可能是为了保护人体免受疾病风险而进化而来的。有趣的是，越来越多的研究表明，厌恶感是人类道德的核心情感。厌恶感与道德违规的评价有关，而且这种情绪会影响道德判断，这一事实提出了一个引人注目的难题：为什么一种最初在传染病领域发挥作用的情绪会成为道德裁决者的绝佳候选者？本综述的目的是阐明厌恶感和道德之间的关系本质。
首先，我们考察了厌恶感的相关特征，以探讨厌恶感的现象学是否有利于将其作为防御机制来对抗攻击性的社会实体。其次，我们批判性地回顾了关于厌恶感对道德判断影响的最显著发现。
对文献的重新分析强烈表明，厌恶感和道德认知之间存在双向因果关系。
我们提出，厌恶感的特殊现象学（涉及冒犯感和排斥感）有利于这种情绪与道德领域的共同适应。
