Disgust is a factor in extreme prejudice

Kang

Atten Percept Psychophys

et al. 2010

Compared to neutral or happy stimuli, subliminal fear stimuli are known to be well processed through the automatic pathway. We tried to examine whether fear stimuli could be processed more strongly than other negative emotional stimuli using a modified subliminal affective priming paradigm. Twenty-six healthy subjects participated in two separated sessions. Fear, disgust and neutral facial expressions were adopted as primes, and 50% happy facial stimuli were adopted as a target to let only stronger negative primes reveal a priming effect. Participants were asked to appraise the affect of target faces in the affect appraisal session and to appraise the genuineness of target faces in the genuineness appraisal session. The genuineness instruction was developed to help participants be sensitive to potential threats. In the affect appraisal, participants judged 50% happy target faces significantly more 'unpleasant' when they were primed by fear faces than primed by 50% happy control faces. In the genuineness appraisal, participants judged targets significantly more 'not genuine' when they were primed by fear and disgust faces than primed by controls. These findings suggest that there may be differential priming effects between subliminal fear and disgust expressions, which could be modulated by a sensitive context of potential threat.

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Differential priming effect for subliminal fear and disgust facial expressions

Kang

Atten Percept Psychophys

et al. 2010

“…Several scholars have argued that disgust can be employed as a means of distinguishing Self from Other, reinforcing prejudice and bigotry, marginalising outgroups and therefore operating as a challenge to their human dignity (de Melo-Martín and Salles 2011;Nussbaum 2004;Taylor 2007;Tyler 2013). This 'moral disgust' may be interpreted as a response that is primarily based on understandings of what is appropriate and just social behaviour.…”

Section: Theorising Disgustmentioning

confidence: 99%

The pedagogy of disgust: the ethical, moral and political implications of using disgust in public health campaigns

Lupton

2014

Critical Public Health

129

The developers of public health campaigns have often attempted to elicit disgust to persuade members of their target audiences to change their behaviour in the interests of their health. In this critical essay, I seek to problematise this taken-for-granted and unquestioned tactic. I assert that the pedagogy of disgust in public health campaigns has significant ethical, moral and political implications. In outlining my argument, the literature on the social, cultural and political elements of disgust is drawn upon. I also draw more specifically on scholarship demonstrating the ways in which disgust has operated in relation to health and medical issues to reinforce stigmatisation and discrimination against individuals and groups who are positioned as disgusting. It is concluded that advocates of using such tactics should be aware of the challenge they pose to human dignity and their perpetuation of the Self and Other binary opposition that reinforces negative attitudes towards already disadvantaged and marginalised individuals and social groups.

International Journal of Intercultural Relations

“…The emotion disgust could be particularly pertinent to the Roma, as many media portrayals have associated them with disgusting stimuli (Eggesvik, 2013;Rostad, 2013;Rud, 2011), and disgust is an especially important factor in extreme forms of prejudice (Taylor, 2007). The core characteristic of the feeling of disgust is repulsion, and can function as a signal for danger (Hodson et al, 2013).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The effect of disgust-eliciting media portrayals on outgroup dehumanization and support of deportation in a Norwegian sample

Dalsklev

Kunst

2015

a b s t r a c tPublic discourse regarding the Roma has been heated in many western European countries. This study investigates whether feelings of disgust, elicited through negative media portrayals, can lead to more dehumanization and support of deportation toward this minority. While Study 1 (N = 30) validated a measure of dehumanization in the Norwegian context, Study 2 (N = 195) experimentally tested whether disgust-eliciting media portrayals would increase dehumanization tendencies on this validated measure and support of deportation toward the Roma. As expected, reading a newspaper article focusing on allegedly low hygienic standards among the Roma increased the feeling of disgust, which, in turn, led to higher degrees of dehumanization and support of deportation. While being the first study experimentally showing that disgust leads to dehumanization of a real societal minority group, the results also have important implications for how media discusses and presents social issues regarding devalued minority groups.