SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
A new study showed a link between strong right-wing views and fear of disease and increased concern about hygiene.
The study showed that people who are more offended by bad odors are more likely to support authoritarian leaders, such as Donald Trump.
In the past, disgust at bad odors was important for survival. The scientists suggested that the disgust at unfamiliar odors may be linked to a desire to keep apart from "culturally unfamiliar" groups.
[...] In the new study, 160 people were rated on their aversion to bodily odours on a scale to one five and their responses compared to their political views. It found that each point higher on the disgust scale was associated with feeling 7.5 points more positive towards authoritarian leaders.
[...] It showed that people who were more disgusted by smells were also more likely to vote for Donald Trump than those who were less sensitive.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by meustrus on Thursday March 01 2018, @03:07PM (1 child)
Natural selection may favor individual survival among wild animals, but humans have been a tribal species for a long time. The most likely cause of death for a human being, besides failing health, is not predators or spoiled food. It's other human beings, and for the majority of human existence, war from other tribes.
Therefore, natural selection does not just favor individual survival. It favors group survival. And the tribes which survive and prosper have invariably been the ones that care better for others within the tribe, with a general trend against interpersonal power struggles.
But the trajectory of humanity did not end with the selection of the best tribes. It continued as some tribes learned to cooperate with each other and form alliances. These tribes had a strong advantage over the tribes that were unwilling to cooperate with the other. Natural selection favors the tribes that cooperate with others and form alliances.
It is these tribes, forming large-scale alliances across increasingly vast regions, that formed the basis of civilization. The trends have continued towards larger and larger cooperating groups, because a greater number of people working together have always been able to accomplish more and survive worse calamity. Natural selection favors the individual who puts aside ideas of "purity" and is unaffected by fear of the unfamiliar, because those individuals form the building blocks of stronger cooperative groups.
One stick alone breaks easily. Many sticks tied together hold firm.
If there isn't at least one reference or primary source, it's not +1 Informative. Maybe the underused +1 Interesting?
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Friday March 02 2018, @03:20AM
Just to note, the root word of fascism is "fasces," which is the very bundle of sticks you're talking about...
You're completely right, though. And, hilariously, the same people who will say "culture and epigenetics influence evolution" (because they can't say "hurr hurr stupid n*ggers" without getting filtered, of course!) will studiously and carefully ignore the much more fundamental and universally human selection for group behavior and cooperation. Human, hell, primate even.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...