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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: 4, Insightful) by LVDOVICVS on Thursday March 01 2018, @06:00AM (11 children)
Yeah, you're better. You're not "broken."
You said yourself "...conservatives value... concepts..." The avoidance of gross, disgusting things might produce the opposite of an evolutionary benefit. I've seen a burly, conservative man or two wretch at the mere idea of having to change his baby's diaper. Letting your offspring wallow in filth is not beneficial for your progeny. It's not the act of changing the baby that's the problem, it's the "concept" that it's somehow "gross."
It's not some evolutionary superiority that causes this type of behavior, it's that you're a sensitive snowflake.
(Score: 2) by Entropy on Thursday March 01 2018, @02:33PM (3 children)
It could also mean they don't want to date someone who never showers, and thus smells bad. Making the leap to "doesn't like their own baby" from "doesn't like things that smell like filth" is a little much, in my opinion.
(Score: 2) by captain normal on Thursday March 01 2018, @09:53PM (2 children)
Well if you were to live in the South West USA, South Africa or much of Australia (o say nothing of much of Northern Africa, Northern Mexico and Northern Chile) you probably wouldn't be getting laid. Of course you probably don't get laid at all, as even if one showers daily, the act of rubbing bodies together creates lots of smells you'd likely find offensive.
"It is easier to fool someone than it is to convince them that they have been fooled" Mark Twain
(Score: 2) by Entropy on Thursday March 01 2018, @10:13PM
In the south west USA they have air conditioning... Probably not in Africa, but due to the AIDS epidemic one shouldn't get laid there for a number of reasons. ;)
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 01 2018, @11:06PM
I get that the coons in Africa stink, but Australians?
(Score: 3, Insightful) by AthanasiusKircher on Thursday March 01 2018, @02:36PM (1 child)
I'd just note that there's quite a bit a research showing a lot of "disgust" reactions are learned behavior that comes from children observing other people (parents, other adults, other children). There are few things that produce an "innate" universal response like that.
For casual proof -- observe most children. (Studies are more rigorous, but this is just something most people will notice.) Small children are happy to pick up and play with bugs, small creeping slimy things, things that stink, things that most adults would never go near. Most of their "disgust" responses are learned later.
Concern about body odor is one of those things that is also informed by cultural practice. Until a century or so ago, when "deodorant" companies convinced everyone that body odor was unnatural and "unhygienic," body odor was just accepted as common. In fact, pheromones and such in it was often perceived as sexy. There's a somewhat famous account of Napoleon telling his wife to not bathe for several days before he was to return home, because he enjoyed her smell. And that he carried a cloth from her with him that she had kept under her armpit for a while. (If I remember the anecdote correctly...)
Also, keep in mind that frequent deep cleansing affects the type of bacteria that hang out on the skin, which affect odor character. Not washing (or at least not using harsh soaps) for days or weeks may develop very different biomes on your skin. The fast-growing stuff that takes up residence every day is probably more stinky and offensive.
(Note -- I shower daily and use deodorant, etc... So I'm not promoting this because it's not standard in Western society. But "hygiene" practices have given birth to a lot of BS over the years, and our sensitivity to BO is probably enhanced by cultural perception and practice.)
(Score: 2) by Bot on Friday March 02 2018, @05:09PM
> I'd just note that there's quite a bit a research showing a lot of "disgust" reactions are learned behavior that comes from children observing other people (parents, other adults, other children).
Those bits of research do not explain the faces of little kids in front of veggies, though.
Account abandoned.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Thursday March 01 2018, @03:21PM (1 child)
Actually, baby shit can be overwhelmingly nauseous. I changed my share of diapers, and I can tell you that not every full diaper is equal. Don't ask me why or how, but apparently the digestive biome changes from time to time, and unholy things can happen.
Normally, diaper changing is merely objectionable, and a nuisance. And, of course, you know that candy asses will use any excuse to get out of such chores.
Abortion is the number one killed of children in the United States.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 01 2018, @05:45PM
To this day, I still have the occasional PSTD-like flashbacks to changing diapers, especially the ones where the little guy wasn't feeling good.
(Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Thursday March 01 2018, @05:04PM (2 children)
I'd wager the correlation is stronger if you evaluate city-dwellers vs. rural folks, anyway. Simply being exposed to more people seems a lot more reasonable a hypothesis than political views.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 01 2018, @05:27PM (1 child)
I did not like being exposed to gross and nasty city-dwelling liberals. Subway stations, though convenient, were especially awful. They smelled of piss and more. Passing through the park (The Fens), you'd see guys lying on the grass in speedos that were supported by vertical cocks. The piles of condoms behind the bush beside the rose garden were not appealing to me. I saw bums begging. Everything, everywhere, seemed so dirty and icky and perverted.
City life mostly made me want to flee, and so I did as soon as I could. Simply being exposed to more people made me hate those sick fucks.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 01 2018, @11:03PM
Well at least you stopped posting your horror fantasies for a few hours. Speaking of sick fucks. . .