Disgusted, repulsed, grossed out, sickened, or made squeamish. Whatever you call those feelings of disgust that rear up whenever you do something awful or are forced into a position to confront the vilest emanations of the human (or animal) body, they’re tough to fight through for some folk. That’s not just good sense, it’s a survival instinct. Being grossed out by waste and foulness is key to human survival.
Just as fear is a survival mechanism designed to keep us away from hungry lions, “disgust is quite similar. It keeps us away from tiny little animals that would eat us up from the inside,” said Valerie Curtis of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. “We evolved to stay away from poo, from bodily fluids, from mucous, from foods that have gone off, from worms in the garden.”
Added Curtis, “If I go around leaving poo in your front lawn or spitting in your cups or making nasty smells in public transport or if I go to church in my pajamas, I’m threatening you with my bodily fluids. These are manners, but they’re also the precursor of moral behavior. That’s at least one of the ways that morality could have evolved in society: simple rules about not getting other people sick with your emanations.”
Tags: weird science, survival instincts, disgust is key to human survival, disugst is a survival instinct, being grossed out is instinctive, grossed out, human behavior, Valerie Curtis, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, survival behavior, moral behavior comes from disgust