From: CNN
Feeling disgust helps us stay healthy, study says
June 7, 2018
Disgust is our guardian: Though most of us would rather not feel this unpleasant emotion, it helps us avoid disease and infection, new research suggests.
Long before microscopes revealed unseen germs and parasites, humans developed a system of disgust, with six basic triggers warning us to turn away from harmful pathogens, according to a study published Sunday in the journal Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society.
“Disgust evolved to protect us from disease in our ancient past. The disgust response today may, or may not, be a good guide to what might make us sick today,” said Val Curtis, lead author of the study and a professor and director of the Environmental Health Group of the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine.
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Whether disgust “is innate is probably believed by most investigators, though I think this is uncertain but possible,” said Paul Rozin, a professor of psychology at the University of Pennsylvania. Rozin, who was not involved in the new research, noted that Curtis is “a serious investigator.”
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