Study of 632 US Adults Finds Disgust-Politics Link Depends on Disgust Type, Bodily Awareness
The Facts
- A review of 24 studies found that people who reported being more easily disgusted tended to hold more socially conservative views. DW only
- Researchers Manos Tsakiris and Mariana von Mohr surveyed 632 US adults on how much they noticed and trusted bodily signals (interoceptive sensibility). DW only
- In that survey, people more easily disgusted by sexual behavior tended to be more conservative regardless of bodily awareness; the link between moral disgust and conservatism appeared only among people reporting lower bodily awareness. DW only
- The survey found no significant link between pathogen disgust and conservative views, and bodily awareness alone was unrelated to political views. DW only
- A 2020 study found conservatives reported greater disgust at sexual behaviors and drug use, while liberals reported greater disgust at animal abuse and environmental pollution; general disgust sensitivity did not differ clearly across the political spectrum. DW only
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- A 2020 study by Bert Bakker at the University of Amsterdam struggled to reproduce earlier findings that conservatives showed stronger physical reactions, measured partly by sweating, to disgusting images. DW only
- Psychologist Yoel Inbar said evidence linking disgust sensitivity to conservative beliefs remains uncertain and wants the bodily-awareness findings retested with predictions set in advance. DW only
Context
Psychologists have investigated whether sensitivity to disgust helps explain political beliefs. Questionnaire-based studies generally find more conservative people report being more easily disgusted, but physiological findings have not consistently replicated.
A new survey by Tsakiris and von Mohr suggests the relationship varies by type of disgust and by how people perceive their bodily signals. Inbar, who was not an author of the study, questions whether sexual disgust is a useful measure and says the results need replication.
How the Agent Panel Scored This
Independent AI personas each scored importance 1–10; the story's score is a trimmed mean (highest and lowest votes dropped). Vote spread: 1.
| 2 | Informed Citizen | This is a niche academic psychology survey with limited direct impact on ordinary people, and its findings are preliminary and contested by outside researchers. |
| 2 | News Editor | This is a niche academic psychology survey and review offering incremental findings and expert caveats, with no major concrete event or broad immediate impact on people. |
| 1 | Business Analyst | This is a niche academic psychology survey with no market, economic, corporate, or regulatory impact, so it scores at the bottom of the scale. |