Department of Psychological Science, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, Arkansas, United States of America.
Department of Political Science, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, Arkansas, United States of America.
PLoS One. 2014 May 5;9(5):e95572. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0095572. eCollection 2014.
Disgust has been implicated as a potential causal agent underlying socio-political attitudes and behaviors. Several recent studies have suggested that pathogen disgust may be a causal mechanism underlying social conservatism. However, the specificity of this effect is still in question. The present study tested the effects of disgust on a range of policy preferences to clarify whether disgust is generally implicated in political conservatism across public policy attitudes or is uniquely related to specific content domains. Self-reported socio-political attitudes were compared between participants in two experimental conditions: 1) an odorless control condition, and 2) a disgusting odor condition. In keeping with previous research, the present study showed that exposure to a disgusting odor increased endorsement of socially conservative attitudes related to sexuality. In particular, there was a strong and consistent link between induced disgust and less support for gay marriage.
厌恶感被认为是潜在的社会政治态度和行为的原因。最近的几项研究表明，病原体厌恶感可能是社会保守主义的一种潜在机制。然而，这种效应的特异性仍存在疑问。本研究测试了厌恶感对一系列政策偏好的影响，以明确厌恶感是否普遍涉及政治保守主义，还是与特定的内容领域有关。在两个实验条件下，比较了自我报告的社会政治态度：1）无味对照条件，2）令人作呕的气味条件。与先前的研究一致，本研究表明，暴露于令人作呕的气味会增加对与性相关的社会保守态度的认可。特别是，引起的厌恶感与对同性婚姻的支持减少之间存在强烈而一致的联系。
