Disgust Reactions
I would describe disgust reactions as a feeling of
displeasure/repulsion towards a person or object that causes you to withdraw
from the situation. I find disgust
reactions to be very interesting. I'm
curious as to why we acquire disgust reactions with such ease? Personally I know that I usually get
disgusted by things very easily; like if I see something gory or a really bad
wound my stomach gets a woozy feeling and I lose my appetite and can't finish
what I'm eating, especially if it resembles what I just saw in any minute way.
After looking online I found that some disgust reactions are
very serious. For example on this site http://ask.metafilter.com/133232/How-to-stop-having-an-intense-disgust-reaction
I read a story of a
person who has a disgust reaction to people sniffling. He can't stand it and as
he's gotten older it's gotten worse; at points it even makes him throw up. He doesn't find it disgusting when people
throw up or eat food off the ground, it is specifically with sniffling. It may be a result of the fact that when he
was young his mother would hit him for sniffling and that his nanny told him he
was drinking snot. These traumatic
events may have resulted in his phobia. After
looking online I found a website that informed me that the disgust reaction is actually
believed to arise as a method to avoid illness and disease. http://www.sound101.org/badvibes/horriblesound.php?factoid=disgust
We avoid other people's bodily excretions and secretions because they contain high concentrations of pathogens that can make us sick. Also, we are more disgusted by strangers because they have the potential to carry new diseases that we're not immune to. I definitely agree with this because whenever I'm exposed to a cough or sneeze I immediately worry about getting sick, especially when I don't know the person. In addition, women have more of a disgust reaction than men do which is most likely due to them needing to protect their offspring in addition to themselves. So if this is just a natural reaction for us humans is there any way to control these actions and prevent them from happening? Or is it something in our DNA that cannot be changed?
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