More nature/nurture

[andrewducker]

Dr. Curtis and colleagues claim to have quantitatively demonstrated for the first time that the emotion of disgust, rather than being a primarily learned reaction, is, in fact, part of humans' biological programming to help protect us from the risks of disease or harm.

In the past, disgust was thought to be more a response to "otherness," to something foreign or not socially acceptable, but some experts agree that this latest study confirms the evolutionary role. According to psychologist Lance Workman, of Cardiff University, even though there may be a cultural component, "disgust is an evolutionary response to dangerous items." Not everybody agrees wholeheartedly, however. Professor Clark McCauley, of Bryn Mawr University, claims that the biological mechanism is just the starting point: "What people today find disgusting goes far beyond what can be understood in the evolutionary sense.... For example, what counts for appropriate care of hair in our society is not the same as in some other societies."

Dr. Curtis and her team do acknowledge that although the overall pattern could not have been clearer or more consistent, a certain amount of "disgust behaviour," as with all behavioral patterns, comes from learned experience. After all, what else might explain the fact (reg req'd) that although people from all over the world responded similarly, Australians were the least squeamish?

More here

Comments

[heron61.livejournal.com]

Illness and human waste are pretty much universally disgusting to humans, this study has nicely proven that. However, it has done absolutely nothing that I can see to prove that this disgust is in any way an inborn trait instead of a highly pervasive and useful meme. I find the idea that behavioral and psychological universals or near universals must be inborn and not merely highly adaptive cultural traits to be exceedingly naive and simplistic. Then again, I find over 90% of what is called evolutionary psychology to be amazingly naive and simplistic.

[autodidactic.livejournal.com]

Australians, I have observed, are less squeamish because it's not considered cool to be a pansy about things.

It might be chauvinism that saves us all.

A.