Higher overall disgust sensitivity was associated with a greater likelihood of identifying as a Republican and holding a conservative ideology. A person with high disgust sensitivity and low bodily awareness had a 64.1% probability of identifying as a Republican.

[u/mvea]

https://www.psypost.org/disgust-predicts-conservative-views-most-strongly-in-people-with-low-bodily-awareness/

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[u/bhdp_23]

Was also a study which showed eating ginger reduced disgust sensitivity by a large amount.

[u/medicated_in_PHL → u/bhdp_23]

There was a study showing that being an involved parent lowered your disgust sensitivity as well.

[u/LibertyDochas → u/medicated_in_PHL]

Makes sense. Kids can be a lot with the bodily functions and doing & saying bizarre things.

[u/SpiritedEclair → u/LibertyDochas]

I don’t have kids of my own but my ex had and lemme tell you disgust sensitivity goes down massively even if you are not their parent.

I thought I had a massive gag reflex and could puke at the slightest hint of vomit around me, but, when her children puked I was able to take care of it no issue.

[u/zephyreblk → u/SpiritedEclair]

Owning a dog or a cat could achieve a similar result. It's never the same when it's family

[u/tigerlevi → u/zephyreblk]

Definitely. When my dog was a puppy my partner and I were hanging with my pup on the bed, when my little boy got the classic puke face. There was no time to move him somewhere else and I instinctively cupped my hands, caught all the vomit, and was able to carry it to dispose of. My partner was equally impressed and grossed out!

[u/Shadowdragon409 → u/tigerlevi]

Wow! That's really impressive!
If there's no time to get the dog outside, I always just wait for the impending mess with a defeated look on my face.

[u/ZeeBeast → u/tigerlevi]

What a save!

[u/The_BeardedClam → u/ZeeBeast]

Washing hands is better than doing the laundry.

[u/uberfission → u/SpiritedEclair]

I have 3 kids and I feel like my sympathetic puke reflex is actually stronger now. My middle child just threw up a couple of days ago and I felt like I would throw up just hearing my wife calling for assistance.

I have absolutely no problems with my dogs' vomit though, that's kind of weird now that I think about it.

[u/ThrowbackPie → u/LibertyDochas]

The study found a link between moral disgust and conservatism, but no link with physical disgust.

[u/Adezar → u/medicated_in_PHL]

Having raised children, yes you do learn to deal with things you would never have expected. They are disgusting creatures from time to time.

[u/DrDerpberg → u/Adezar]

It's kind of surreal how often I ended up talking about diapers or spitup with random parents when my kid was little.

"Oh yeah no my daughter doesn't really puke, she just blows diarrhea up her back every week or two"

"Hmmm yeah hate when that happens" sips coffee

[u/MuppetusMaximusV2 → u/DrDerpberg]

A friend had a daughter five months before mine was born. He told me, completely nonchalantly, "It's a lot more wiping poop out of a vagina than I anticipated."

I carried that advice with me, and sure enough, having a daughter was a lot more wiping poop out of a vagina than I had anticipated as well. I made sure to pass that gross advice on.

[u/Biggest-Benjamin → u/DrDerpberg]

Up their back?! How do they fit that much inside them??

[u/Schnoofles → u/Biggest-Benjamin]

They are poop factories. They do not eat, but rather "reload"

[u/Cru_Jones86 → u/Schnoofles]

Literally just a human shaped bag of poop. SO glad those days are over.

[u/likwidkool → u/DrDerpberg]

Oh god the mess that was! Thankfully my “kids” are now adults. Loved them but that stuff sucked!

[u/Long-Broccoli-3363 → u/Adezar]

You mean when they are getting sick and you're taking care of them and they sneeze without warning directly in your face and you get a glob of snot in your mouth?

[u/Adezar → u/Long-Broccoli-3363]

Or you lift them above you and they vomit all over your face and some gets in your mouth.

Ah, the memories.

[u/redsalmon67 → u/medicated_in_PHL]

I feel like working in an animal hospital as a teenager lowered my disgust sensitivity for similar reasons. Hard to be disgusted of you have to deal with blood and poop on a daily basis

[u/fernlitmoon → u/medicated_in_PHL]

Maybe that's a contributing factor to why older men skew conservative and older women skew democratic... Men are less likely to have been involved parents.

Are childless people more likely to be conservative?

[u/the_swaggin_dragon → u/[deleted]]

But that would suggest there’s some distinction between being an involved parent and getting your wife pregnant a lot

[u/Absentrando → u/the_swaggin_dragon]

Women with more children also lean conservative. It’s not really as simple as Redditors want to make it

[u/hates_stupid_people → u/fernlitmoon]

Are childless people more likely to be conservative?

They're more likely to be liberal.

On the extreme ends of the political spectrum, conservatives are roughly twice as likely to have children at age 40.

[u/LurkerZerker → u/fernlitmoon]

I would think -- and don't quote me on this -- that childless people skew more liberal, because the attitudes and factors that lead them to choose to be childless tend to correlate with liberalism: college educated, married later, solidly middle-class, less religious, invested in reproductive rights, etc.

[u/Soleilunamas → u/bhdp_23]

Ginger is a common nausea remedy, so that makes sense to me.

Was this the study?

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30596444/

[u/TamoyaOhboya → u/Soleilunamas]

Thanks for the link, fascinating! I wonder if other anti nausea medicines will have the same effect

[u/Source0fAllThings → u/TamoyaOhboya]

…Just realized that fascist and fascinating share the same lingual root. Now that’s fascinating.

Also, yes, we need to add ginger to the American diet asap.

[u/RichardSaunders → u/Source0fAllThings]

Does ginger ale have a meaningful amount of ginger in it to get the medicinal effects?

[u/AnotherSoulessGinger → u/RichardSaunders]

Most of them don’t even have real ginger anymore, just artificial flavors.. Fever Tree, Reeds and Boylan’s all have real ginger and no high fructose corn syrup.

All three definitely put a dent in nausea more than Seagrams, Vernors or Canada Dry (they only have artificial flavors). I have pretty bad chronic nausea so I think I’m a good judge. I also suggest Gin Gins or the Trader Joe’s ginger chews. Sometimes a chew and a Reeds can kill my nausea, sometimes a ginger ale adds a needed boost to my Zofran (prescribed nausea medication).

[u/The_BeardedClam → u/AnotherSoulessGinger]

The only thing to kill my wife's morning sickness was those ginger chews, she hated them but they worked.

[u/Source0fAllThings → u/RichardSaunders]

I grew up drinking copious amounts of Vernors ginger ale as well as Canada Dry and I don’t find other people or cultures disgusting. Just saying.

[u/Svihelen → u/RichardSaunders]

Probably not. My girlfriend is allergic to ginger but can drink ginger ale just fine.

Ginger beer on the other hand does make her react so that may have enough in it.

[u/kab0b0 → u/Source0fAllThings]

they sound alike and are spelled similarly but come from different sources

[u/KuriousKhemicals → u/Soleilunamas]

Unfortunately I have used ginger tea to counteract nausea enough that it now makes me feel queasy by conditioned association.

It is fortunately not a problem with ginger seasoned food or ginger as a food in itself (candied or pickled ginger).

[u/ItsMisoandBoba → u/Soleilunamas]

It's also a wonderful spice for cooking in general. It adds a warmth and slight bite, and adding some to a meat rub is always a good idea. I use it in my BBQ rubs, some of my jerky recipes, and along with a dash of cumin, it can really add depth of flavor to roasted potatoes, grilled corn, etc. if you think you need a little extra something in a recipe, it can very often be filled with ginger, and also a small amount of curry powder (like 1/4 tsp) can just wow your mouth.

And I don't just say that as a card-carrying member of the Ginger Nation. It's just coincidence that I have beautiful red hair, too.

[u/AppleSniffer → u/bhdp_23]

As in eating it right before you expect to be disgusted, or having it as a general part of your diet makes you generally less disgusted?

[u/slabby → u/bhdp_23]

So we just need to introduce conservatives to redheaded women.

[u/ctothel]

Social conservatism has always struck me as “I’m disgusted, and therefore you must stop doing that”.

Edit: relating it to the low body awareness point, it’s as if they perceive their disgust as moral truth, when it’s actually just a personal reaction.

[u/anoziraguy9687 → u/ctothel]

One of the professors at my university pioneered research linking flight or fight response to political ideology.

They took groups of people and showed them a series of images and measured their heart rate and brain activity.

The photos were of both fearful and peaceful images – spiders, beaches, snakes, mountains, fires, flowers, etc.

People who had increased heart rate and brain responses (adverse reactions) to the “negative” images had conservative political viewpoints. Conversely, those who had less of a reaction were more liberal. It’s fascinating.

That supported the idea that conservative media looks to inflame political topics because it’s effective to those people on a psychological/physiological level.

[u/grumpi-otter → u/anoziraguy9687]

I recall reading a study that showed larger amygdala were correlated with conservatism. Ie, more fear equals more conservative

[u/BeCoolHoney-Bunny → u/anoziraguy9687]

This is very similar to a study that I was a participant in related to alcohol use an anxiety / mental health. They stuck me in an MRI machine and while they imaged my brain, exposed me to a series of stimuli including visuals, sounds, and a muscle stimulating shock. The stimuli was either neutral (ex: picture of a teaspoon, a non offensive tone, and a jolt that was noticeable but not painful) or negative (violent/gorey/disgusting picture, screaming/gunshot/dog snarling, and a painful muscle shock). Prior to the stimuli, there was a graphic that showed a bar graph that basically indicated the likelihood of impending stimuli being neutral or negative. I'm sure they were looking at the brains anticipation rather than the actual response to the the stimuli. Anyway that last for about 90 minutes and by the end I was quite overwhelmed and over it and I made $350 and now have a cool story.

[u/brother_of_jeremy → u/anoziraguy9687]

But the libs are “living in fear” amirite?

It’s always projection with these people.

[u/Kizik → u/brother_of_jeremy]

High fear response, low empathy.

It's what they experience therefore it must be what everyone experiences; they just want to make sure everyone else is feeling more fear than they do.

[u/Cruuncher → u/Kizik]

My brother is the lowest empathy person I've ever met in my life.

I don't mean that to say he's an asshole. But just completely unwilling to understand anyone's views or preferences that are different than his. It's absolutely bizarre.

Interestingly though, he's not right wing. I mean he has voted right, but not always.

But every single election(in Canada) he predicts absolute landslides that just never happen. Because he just becomes so sure that once he believes it, everyone else must too.

He really can't comprehend that people are actually different from eachother

[u/Succmyspace → u/Cruuncher]

I sometimes truly believe that some people have just never had that existential moment where they realize every other person is a full human with a full life just like them, never once contemplated the idea that everything they believe might be wrong, I don’t want to be the smug prick that sounds like I think I’m smarter than others but sometimes the things people say/do are so alien to me I have to come up with some explanation for how people just act like everyone has the same brain as them.

[u/JerryMau5 → u/brother_of_jeremy]

Every accusation is a confession

[u/bewarethefrogperson → u/anoziraguy9687]

Are you referring to "Political Attitudes Vary with Physiological Traits" from the University of Nebraska–Lincoln? I thought they had replication issues?

[u/anoziraguy9687 → u/bewarethefrogperson]

No it was at the University of Arizona in 2019/2020.

The professor is named Frank Gonzalez. He was in the early stages of developing political psychophysiology for U of A.

Edit: link to the cohort of professors – https://sgpp.arizona.edu/faculty/political-psychology

[u/bewarethefrogperson → u/anoziraguy9687]

Thank you! I'll look into it. Always been facinated by this kind of research.

[u/delorf → u/anoziraguy9687]

That's fascinating. I also wonder if parenting can influence whether someone is Republican or not. I know a lot of conservatives who had authoritarian parents who expected unquestioning obedience.

[u/boxdkittens → u/delorf]

My mom was an authoritarian who expected unquestioning obedience. Didn't work, I asked questions all the time and got yelled at all the time. We don't talk now and I have never voted R ever in my adult life. 

What would be more interesting to know is what causes some kids to adopt their parents beliefs, and some to go the opposite way. I would guess it has something to do with admiration or respect of their parent. My mom doesn't really have any qualities I respect or would like to imitate so it stands to reason that I would not view her political stances favorably.

[u/MeringuePatient6178 → u/anoziraguy9687]

This is interesting but I'd wonder how it compares to anxiety disorder. I am not remotely conservative, but I have panic disorder and anxiety disorder which means my fight or flight is very busted. 

[u/Anyashadow → u/MeringuePatient6178]

I have anxiety but my flight or fight has always been stuck on fight. I can't enjoy haunted houses because anything that startles me has me pulling my fist back involuntary. It's annoying as hell when I can't enjoy a horror movie because every jump scare makes me want to fight the TV. It sucks!

[u/ScentedFire → u/ctothel]

I think there is something to this. My friends has expressed an idea to me that conservative men seem to react very strongly toward eradicating the source of disgust for them. He told me that as a straight (not conservative) man, he does feel a knee-jerk disgust about the idea of having sex with another man, but knows not to make his internal feeling about a specific scenario anyone else's problem, while it seems like conservative guys want to destroy anything that could make them have to think about this even tangentially due to the extreme emotional reaction they have.

[u/BuzzImaFan → u/ScentedFire]

And these are supposedly the "Facts don't care about your feelings" people. Conservatives have always been the most thin-skinned, sensitive people on the planet, and they're so preoccupied with appearing strong and stoic that they will literally support the suppression of anyone who makes them think critically about the feelings they try so desperately to stuff down and ignore.

[u/trappedinatoaster → u/BuzzImaFan]

Their entire psychological playbook is "accuse the other person of doing the thing you hate, then THEY are guilty, not you"

[u/From_Deep_Space → u/ScentedFire]

Theres also the stereotype that homophobes have more homosexual impulses. Thats why theyre afraid liberal media is trying to "trick them into being gay", while most straight men have no idea what theyre talking about because we dont have intrusive thoughts about male sensuality.

[u/marr75 → u/ctothel]

as if they perceive their disgust as moral truth

Replace disgust with just about any negative emotion and you've got the predicate behind most therapy. A political movement unified by not examining the voice in your head skeptically is certainly something.

[u/windowpuncher → u/marr75]

Therapy? Self reflection?

That's for the liberal devil worshipers.

[u/_game_over_man_ → u/ctothel]

Social conservatism has always struck me as “I’m disgusted, and therefore you must stop doing that”.

This always strikes me as a way to just avoid dealing with their own feelings.

[u/randynumbergenerator → u/_game_over_man_]

And frequently channel it into the only feeling that's so socially acceptable for men it sometimes isn't considered a feeling, i.e. anger. 

(As a fairly calm guy, I feel embarrassed I never realized the above until fairly recently when women probably learn it much earlier, but now I see it everywhere.)

[u/_game_over_man_ → u/randynumbergenerator]

Yup, there's always that component as well. As a woman, it does make me sad to see so many men feel like they can't or shouldn't engage with their emotions unless it's anger. That kind of emotional shut down does so much damage to an individual and to others.

We're all human beings and it's perfectly fine and normal to feel things, even if they don't feel great. What matters the most in that is how you deal with said feelings.

[u/love_is_an_action → u/ctothel]

Oh my goodness, the number of conversations where I’ve had to explain “it’s not evil, or even necessarily bad. You, personally, just don’t like it.” Is outrageously high.

How folks confuse their druthers for The Way of Things is baffling to me. I think they’re bent.

[u/PlaidTeacup → u/love_is_an_action]

A lot of their arguments seem to be based on whether they are personally attracted to people as well. A lot of conservative memes seem to start and end with "wow, I really don't think this person saying liberal things is hot"

Another fascinating one is writing off people for having dyed hair. It seems like they just find it obvious that people with blue hair shouldn't be listened to, but never present an actual argument why

[u/IlIFreneticIlI → u/ctothel]

they perceive their disgust as moral truth

It's more accurate to just-say they are children in the way they perceive and react to the world.

They dictate things as they ought to be in their minds, vs just going-to-look and be responsive to that.

It's why they are always angry and off-base, inaccurate in their framing of anything: their expectations will NEVER match reality b/c they do live in a fantasy-world..

[u/Drak_is_Right → u/ctothel]

Exactly. They dont question it.

Then conservative media takes advantage of them not questioning it by trying to get them reasons to feel that way (a TON of conservatives think most Trans people are pedophiles for example.

[u/okjetsgo → u/ctothel]

They’re taught that their bodies are dirty and shameful, so anything out of the norm is animalistic and unacceptable for anyone.

[u/TheMansAnArse]

The Righteous Mind by Jonathan Haidt is good on this.

The question is, what comes first? The disgust sensitivity or the ideology.

[u/beefyzac → u/TheMansAnArse]

“On the level of individuals and civilizations, personality predates ideology. Meaning, before you were a Fascists you were a bully and an asshole.”
-Brennan Lee Mulligan quoting someone else

[u/ObnoxiousAlbatross → u/beefyzac]

Fascism, as it turns out, is just emotional immaturity expressed at a national level.

[u/Number3675 → u/ObnoxiousAlbatross]

Understanding this as a society and learning about it in school will take much power away from dictators and aspiring fascists.

[u/piston989 → u/Number3675]

ah so that’s why they cut the education budget…

[u/stop-calling-me-fat → u/piston989]

Unironically yes

[u/klawz86 → u/stop-calling-me-fat]

Really picked up after the Mine Wars. West Virginia banned teaching social topics and had great success turning the kids of heroes into corporate bootlickers and political brownnosers.

[u/sailingtroy → u/ObnoxiousAlbatross]

That doesn't really square with how it becomes more or less popular in different times. If that were true then fascism would be constantly ascendant.

It was observed in post WW2 Britain that fascism rises in capitalist societies during times of economic hardship when there is an insufficient welfare state. The ruined middle class are frustrated, and desperate, and this is exploited by opportunistic politicians. Therefore the economy must be managed for stability (John Maynard Keynes) and the state must provide a backstop against economic ruin. People get ugly when they're hungry, or desperate, or hopeless.

[u/keenan123 → u/sailingtroy]

It being immaturity is actually a really reasonable explanation for its rise. Fascism is national emotional immaturity. If someone is emotionally immature but doing well, they're not going to bother going to rallies and demanding that others be rounded up. They're probably not even capable of coming to fascism on their own. But when things are bad, and someone tells you it's the fault of some out group, well you're not exactly going to be able to dispute that, internally or externally.

[u/deaglebingo → u/keenan123]

increasing lack of education and reading skills/comprehension runs right into the emotional immaturity part too. what you're saying and the study itself kind of explain why rage bait works so well on them.

[u/EjaculatingAracnids → u/sailingtroy]

No wonder why theyre so focused on cutting foodstamps, welfare, social security... They need to ensure their future existence.

[u/AntonSugarwater → u/sailingtroy]

You’re not saying anything differently. Picking an ideology that will burn down your country because you’re scared or frustrated is emotional immaturity

[u/MiaowaraShiro → u/sailingtroy]

It doesn't really square with it being the only factor. It certainly can still be a factor without contradicting anything you've said.

[u/livinginfutureworld → u/beefyzac]

While the tracks and sound very true in that the rise to fascism will be more appealing to people that are currently assholes and bullies, the question could go back further and say was this person born like this or were they taught like this through the environment right? Its the chicken or the egg again

[u/_adanedhel_ → u/livinginfutureworld]

Personality is orders of magnitude more driven by environment than genetics, outside of certain genetic predispositions toward mental/personality disorders. And even then, there is a strong environmental (epigenetic) component to whether/how severely those manifest.

And I don’t think there is any real doubt that people who experience disempowerment early-on can develop personalities that seek - consciously or unconsciously - to recapture power/control (through bullying, abuse, ambition, etc).

[u/vug_undertherug → u/beefyzac]

Yeah but they take that to mean that they would be the tough, cool, dominant person, not that everyone would just get rid of them because there is no civilized law.

[u/Jelled_Fro → u/beefyzac]

As much as I like Brennan I think this is a dangerous and incorrect way to look at the world. Being a bully is not some essential, immutable quality written in your dna. You are a product of your environment too and facism will create bullies in grater numbers. It's a self reinforcing phenomena, not one or the other.

[u/alurkerhere → u/Jelled_Fro]

On some level in society, it's all about preventing bullies from gaining critical leadership mass. Murdering opponents is mostly out of fashion in the civilized world, and so the key is to edge them out as much as possible. It's impossible to completely stamp that out due to individual circumstances and subjective grievances.

[u/cancerface → u/Jelled_Fro]

You're arguing against something that was not stated. Why?

[u/some_person_guy → u/TheMansAnArse]

I would assume it's a cyclical relationship driven and reinforced by social environment.

[u/TheMansAnArse → u/some_person_guy]

That'd be my guess too.

That said, as another reply pointed out, there's some evidence that there could be a genetic component too (obviously that's difficult to untangle from upbringing). Disgust of certain things is clearly a genetic adaptation to keep us safe from harm and it seems plausible some people are innatately more sensitive to it than others - and that then warps into disgust in the sense we're talking about here.

[u/Helmic → u/TheMansAnArse]

My guess would be that it isn't really your level of disgust being measured here so much as the social norms of reactionary politics encourage someone to play into their disgust and grow it. I find it hard to believe being sensitive to bad odors in itself predisposes someone to particular politics, especially as an inborn characteristic, but I can believe that people have a degree of control over their disgust response and whether you feel a need to suppress or induce it can be influenced by your politics.

[u/StaleCanole → u/TheMansAnArse]

I think this is right and something fascists figured out (and inherently reflect themselves) a long time ago - that disgust sensitivity goes haywire in a certain % of people.

This is why they discuss outsiders, immigrants, and trans, etc, in terms that trigger disgust - as invading rats, vermin, dirty, diseased. Murder is associated with street life, homelessness and drug use. The language is always chosen to trigger a reflexive disgust.

For those of us for whom disgust is muted the language they use is mind bogglingly inhumane and incomprehensible that it works. But here we are

[u/some_person_guy → u/TheMansAnArse]

Yeah I agree with that as well. Think it likely is one of those things that falls into the biopsychosocial model. Trait level disgust that is reinforced by the social environment you're raised in, and cued by psychological states which are cued by relevant environmental stimuli.

[u/Reddituser183 → u/TheMansAnArse]

I think the disgust is lightly hardwired into the structure of the brain. People travel the path of least resistance and they’re then raised by people who also were sensitive to disgust thereby reinforcing and pushing further into habit of observing, categorizing, and judging others based on perceived moral deviances. They then seek out info that confirms their own natural biases and tendencies from media and their social cuticle. But that hard wiring I believe doesn’t guarantee a person will be on the conservative side of the spectrum. I think if you took someone whose wiring made them more critical and judgmental of others, and put them into an environment that is more accepting of others with more wiggle room for deviation and diversity, well I think they’d be moving that direction maybe not to the extent to which someone whose wiring inclined them towards a more tolerant viewpoint.

[u/PuppiesAndPixels → u/TheMansAnArse]

Ideology, especially from a religious perspective, usually comes from indoctrination since birth. Many religions tell you what is gross and wrong and unclean from the get-go.

The same is true for non religious cultural norms pertaining to disgust as well. What one culture might think is a food delicacy another might think is a vile disgusting thing to eat. That interaction /construct sort of goes across all domains of society. And you are steeped in your culture from birth.

So ideology would be my guess.

[u/stay_curious_- → u/TheMansAnArse]

There are a number of studies showing a genetic component to intuitive disgust sensitivity, but there's also a lot of data showing that disgust can be taught and unlearned. ex: disgust levels aimed toward LGBT people were much higher a generation ago, and disgust toward LGB people has fallen quite dramatically in the last 20 years (disgust toward trans people was falling and then rebounded upwards since 2022, around the same time as the increase in anti-trans propaganda).

[u/chachaslydd → u/TheMansAnArse]

Probably the disgust. Theres studies that show 1/3 of basically all species are morr timid whikd 2/3 show higher risk taking.

This doesnt translate directly to being conservative, I consider myself part of that 1/3 of naturally timid and scared humans. But there is a biological thing there. Even fruit flies demonstrate the 1/3 highly sensitive ratio, same with deer and dogs and fish

[u/TheMansAnArse → u/chachaslydd]

This doesnt translate directly to being conservative

Absolutely. Even the study itself suggests that only 64.1% of people who demonstrate this trait support the Republicans.

[u/chachaslydd → u/TheMansAnArse]

But theres nature and nurture.

Like somebody who plays with dead bodies and votes comservative obviously doesn't have a physucally high disgust factor for physical things.

But a lot of conservatuves are very mentally afraid. Like people still joke that homophobia makes no sense since its not fear based, but it is. Like theres no logical reason to hate gay people besides a sense of ickyness and not enjoying the aspect that you cant control these strangers

[u/Sennten → u/TheMansAnArse]

Its absolutely the disgust sensititivity. The bigger question is whether the first causes the second or if they both arise from the same external cause, I think.

[u/CaterpillarJungleGym → u/TheMansAnArse]

That's interesting, because I think if you had high sensitivity and low bodily awareness you would not be able to exist in cities. So like are cities blue because they force different people to interact? Or are they blue because the only people there can withstand more disgust and have better bodily awareness?

[u/Smiletaint]

Can someone explain ‘low body-awareness’?

[u/Timeformayo → u/Smiletaint]

You’re having a physiological emotional response, like a racing heart beat due to stress, but are completely unaware.

[u/throwaway098764567 → u/Timeformayo]

oh, i legit thought it was the people who just leave their carts in the aisle willy nilly while shoulder checking people they didn't even notice existed

[u/Ephemeris → u/Timeformayo]

I thought of it as more "I don't understand how my wife's vagina and uterus work so I'm grossed out by the things it does naturally. If I ignore it then my daughters have to ignore it and never talk about it again. These are the rules of my house."

[u/tackykcat → u/Smiletaint]

i think that's referring to the "interoceptive sensibility" mentioned in the article. Basically someone's sensitivity and perception to bodily sensations such as a racing heartbeat or hunger

[u/btreg → u/tackykcat]

...and modern psychological theory says that you perceive your own emotions indirectly, with emotions originating in your unconscious brain, manifesting in your body, and then being perceived by your conscious brain. Without a body to reflect your emotions, you wouldn't know how you feel. I think it's called the "somatic emotional cycle."

tl;dr: Some experts think if you're unaware of your own body, you're emotionally stupid.

[u/Chode_ → u/btreg]

Checks out. Mindfulness practice increases your interoception, and subjectively that directly correlates to emotional awareness. Observationally to me at least it’s become extremely clear that emotions are in the body and that thoughts follow, and awareness of that dichotomy and their separated nature gives you so many tools to navigate emotion and ego and ultimately your behaviour

[u/between_ewe_and_me → u/btreg]

Huh, that's really interesting. Would kind of put a damper on the idea of uploading your consciousness to the cloud and living forever. Wouldn't be much fun if you have no feelings.

[u/uberfission → u/between_ewe_and_me]

Presumably whatever method of uploading our consciousnesses digitally will be running a full physiological emulation routine. Otherwise, like you said, there wouldn't be much point.

[u/ibww → u/btreg]

I've heard in conversations about autism  that the symptoms of reduced interoception and alexithymia are probably related. 

[u/M_Aku → u/tackykcat]

So if a person looks down at their watch and it says their heart rate is high but wasn't aware of it or feel it. Does this mean they have low sensibility?

[u/101Alexander → u/M_Aku]

It means that if you're not aware that you're feeling anxious, you might see other people or things as threats when you might just be reacting to some strong coffee. Hell even nausea can do it, it's synonymous with that "gut feeling something is wrong".

So if you feel something off, but don't know why, you might attribute it to the wrong source.

[u/Turdposter777 → u/101Alexander]

So like a toddler. Like a sleepy toddler who throws a tantrum rather than going to sleep

[u/Iamkittyhearmemeow → u/Turdposter777]

Exactly like that. My 8 year old was very anxious about going kayaking on the river and said repeatedly, I think I am sick I think I’m going to throw up. I don’t want to go because I might be sick. I gave her a zofran and she was still saying it. 35 mins later when we arrived and she finally got in the kayak she immediately announced that she was feeling better. She doesn’t understand anxiety or how it expresses itself in the body yet.

[u/SquareWheel → u/Smiletaint]

FTFA:

Interoceptive sensibility is a person’s conscious awareness of their internal bodily signals. For instance, it involves noticing a racing heartbeat, a tense stomach, or shallow breathing during an emotional moment.

[u/flashy99 → u/Smiletaint]

When your dog knocks everything off the coffee table with its tail because it doesn't realize what its own hind end is doing.

[u/hear2fear → u/flashy99]

My wife has no dog bodily awareness as well. Putting her red wine glass on the edge of the coffee table when we have a golden retriever. We have white and beige furniture and rugs. It hasn’t happened yet because I have been vigilant, but it is coming.

[u/makingnoise → u/hear2fear]

Unless your coffee table is made of stone or something massive and is the size of a pool table, I'd suspect anywhere on a coffee table is not an appropriate place for red wine when a golden is involved.

[u/StaleCanole → u/Smiletaint]

They don’t have the self awareness to separate they’re inherent reaction as being what it is. If someone is disgusted but was aware of their personal tendency you can rationally separate jt from ideology.

Instead, they’re perceiving what they believe is a universal truth and it offends them. And it offends them when the rest of them call them
Inhumane

[u/UncoolSlicedBread → u/StaleCanole]

Makes sense, I remember learning conservative policy is more rooted into the fault of a person versus liberal policy which is rooted in the fault of the people (community).

They assume it’s an individual fault because they don’t extrapolate.

[u/alflundgren → u/UncoolSlicedBread]

I cant remember how it came up but I remember having a discussion with my very conservative dad about how all humans tend to be instinctually tribalistic and how that can be a positive or a negative thing depending on the situation. He just kept insisting that it didnt apply to everybody especially not him, like somehow it was an insult to imply that he could possess a flaw that everybody else has. I even re-iterated that it wasn't strictly a flaw but he wouldn't have it. Mind you this is a guy who's entire identity revolves around Alabama football.

[u/espinaustin → u/Smiletaint]

Interoceptive sensibility is a person’s conscious awareness of their internal bodily signals. For instance, it involves noticing a racing heartbeat, a tense stomach, or shallow breathing during an emotional moment.

Edit: Longer explanation from the article:

Interoception, defined as the perception and interpretation of internal bodily signals from organs, hormones, and other internal systems that help us regulate our body’s needs and emotions, is a multi-dimensional construct. Beyond the automatic non-conscious physiological processes of sensing ascending information from visceral organs (Craig, Reference Craig2002, Reference Craig2009), interoception also involves becoming aware of our internal states. It is because we can become aware of how our bodies respond to what’s happening that we can figure out how we feel.

And here’s how they tested it:

We used the Multidimensional Assessment of Interoceptive Awareness (MAIA—Version 2; Mehling et al., Reference Mehling, Acree, Stewart, Silas and Jones2018) to measure self-reported interoceptive sensibility. The MAIA-2 includes 37 items scored on a six-point Likert scale (0 never, 5 always) assessing 8 dimensions of interoceptive awareness: (1) noticing (i.e., tendency to notice or become aware of body sensations), (2) not distracting (tendency to not distract oneself from sensations of pain or discomfort, (3) not worrying (tendency to not worry about or experience emotional distress in response to sensations of pain or body discomfort), (4) attention regulation (ability to sustain and control attention to body sensations), (5) emotional awareness (awareness of the link between emotion and body sensations), (6) self-regulation (ability to regulate negative emotion through attention to body sensations), (7) body listening (tendency to listen to body sensations for insight into emotion and guide behavior), and (8) body trust (tendency to experience the body as safe and trustworthy).

[u/Common-Raspberry7567 → u/Smiletaint]

I disconnect between cognition and motorskils.

A gap between cause and effect if you will.

[u/SentientCrisis]

I taught yoga for ~15 years and it’s truly fascinating to me to work with people who seem to be entirely unaware of what’s happening in their body. We would work on lots of fun body-awareness techniques to help people begin to just become aware of where their body is in space and time. It’s an incredibly important skill that can especially help prevent injuries as you age.

[u/party_shaman → u/SentientCrisis]

i didn't start becoming bodily aware until my 30s.

people like to say "the brain is a muscle" but really since your nerves go out through your entire body i say "the body is also your brain"

since i've been learning better movement and better posture, i've also been coming to learn better mental movement and mental posture. 

it's all one big thing. 

[u/naufalap → u/party_shaman]

I know how to sit up straight, but it always defaults back to slouching when I'm not actively thinking about it

[u/totokekedile → u/SentientCrisis]

Do you have an example? I’m having trouble imagining what body unawareness is like.

[u/Carl_Schmitt → u/totokekedile]

The most common example I see in yoga students is people with anxiety disorders. They unconsciously hold tension/postures that exacerbate the fight or flight response, breathe rapidly and shallowly with the lungs, and then misattribute the fear response their behaviors generate to external causes, creating a positive feedback loop. Effectively, they create an addiction pattern in the neural pathways that is the source of their own distress. Combine this with going on anti-anxiety drugs that suppress the functioning of the amygdala, making it extremely difficult to unlearn these bad patterns of thought, and you have the perfect storm of an intractable disorder.

[u/Winter_Bid7630]

I wonder if we could slowly get rid of extreme conservatism by teaching children to understand their feelings as part of a normal school curriculum. I'm thinking of school programs in mindfulness or therapy treatments like Internal Family Systems being offered in the classroom.

I recently went through therapy, and my therapist used the IFS approach. I remember telling her that IFS was the emotional intelligence education every child should have while growing up. As a woman who grew up in the 80s, there were a lot of emotions I wasn't supposed to feel or express because they weren't seen as feminine.

I truly feel like a changed person since therapy, with one of the biggest changes being how much more comfortable I feel around people. I've always been progressive politically, but after therapy, those beliefs are more natural and automatic and less intellectual.

[u/Temp66777 → u/Winter_Bid7630]

That’s literally what’s happening. My spouse is a Socio-Emotional Learning (SEL) contractor with our local school system. Her company teaches kids how to process their emotions and release them in beneficial ways, community-oriented ways. This is especially impactful in areas that have high rates of violence and poverty, where raw, intense, and well-justified  emotions can easily find expression in shootings and gang activity. 

Schools hire her with funds that the state allocates specifically for SEL programs. As others have said, conservatives in state congress are seeing the success of these programs and slashing them left and right. It seems that calm, clear-headed people don’t make good conservative voters. 

[u/IGNOOOREME → u/Temp66777]

Former elementary teacher here and the short answer is a resounding yes. Unfortunately, many of the parents don't choose to share the responsibility of teaching social-emotional awareness, so I ended spending a significant portion of my teaching time on SE. But it's 1000% worh it. Learning math as an adult is so much easier than learning to control your emotions, so it was never a question ehich lesson got focus.

[u/vips7L → u/Winter_Bid7630]

Conservatives would scream that you’re brain washing their children and move to ban it. 

[u/TheTexasHammer → u/vips7L]

Probably because their children would suddenly understand that they have abusive, emotionally stunted parents, and conservatives can't have their children seeing them for who they are.

[u/randynumbergenerator → u/TheTexasHammer]

And that dovetails neatly with the authoritarian parenting model that's more common among conservatives. The opposition to emotional learning, critical thinking, and confidentiality around students' sexual orientation/identity all can be traced back to the idea that kids are mere extensions of their parents and that filial obedience is the most important thing.

[u/totokekedile → u/vips7L]

“Would”? They already have. Around 2020, 2021, Social Emotional Learning was one of their boogeymen. It seems to have dropped off the map as they’ve found bigger success with other wedge issues, but their hatred of it is documented.

[u/exodusofficer → u/totokekedile]

They hate Mister Rogers. They fear him.

[u/KurlyKayla → u/exodusofficer]

Look at how they’re demonizing Ms. Rachel. Any sensitivity shown towards groups who aren’t them is considered bad

[u/TheArmoredKitten → u/exodusofficer]

They get mad that their children can develop a sense of agency and self-respect. Kids that have self-respect call CPS when you slap em around "like the good ol' days"

[u/ScentedFire → u/TheArmoredKitten]

Right. Authoritarian parents literally believe they have to "break their child's will."

[u/Manny_Bothans → u/ScentedFire]

There is a direct line from parents who raised their kids on James Dobson's books to today's christian nationalists.

[u/jel7892 → u/Winter_Bid7630]

It’s already happening to some extent! My preschooler knows more about calming her body (thanks to social emotional learning) than I ever learned at school.

[u/bagofd1ck → u/Winter_Bid7630]

Implementing something like IFS at school would be a complete nightmare but practicing mindfulness is always beneficial

[u/NeanaOption → u/Winter_Bid7630]

You are referring to something call social emotional learning and was apart of elementary school curriculum for years until Republicans decided that teaching kids how to navigate interpersonal conflict and distress was "woke".

They were busy attacking SEL about the same time they started shitting themselves over critical race theory.

[u/Amberpawn]

A failure to critically assess a discomfort results in an increasingly uncomfortable existence which results in reinforcements of known positives with no conception of external solutions to discomforts.... Living in a small and uncritical world is unfortunately a trait many people in the world still experience with our vastly more connectivities.

[u/mvea]

People who are easily disgusted tend to hold more conservative political views, but a new study indicates that this connection depends heavily on how well individuals tune into their own bodily sensations. The research suggests that the link between feeling disgust and identifying as a conservative is strongest in those who are less aware of their internal physical states. The findings were published in Politics and the Life Sciences.

To understand these findings, it helps to look at two psychological concepts: disgust sensitivity and interoceptive sensibility. Disgust sensitivity refers to how intensely and easily a person experiences disgust in response to things like germs, taboo sexual acts, or moral violations like lying. Interoceptive sensibility is a person’s conscious awareness of their internal bodily signals. For instance, it involves noticing a racing heartbeat, a tense stomach, or shallow breathing during an emotional moment.

Overall, the results confirmed past findings: higher overall disgust sensitivity was associated with a greater likelihood of identifying as a Republican and holding a conservative ideology. However, the researchers found that interoceptive sensibility changed the strength of this relationship. The connection between disgust and conservatism was most prominent among individuals who reported low awareness of their bodily sensations.

Among people with low interoceptive sensibility, those who were highly sensitive to disgust were highly likely to identify as Republicans. Statistical estimates showed that a person with high disgust sensitivity and low bodily awareness had a 64.1% probability of identifying as a Republican. They also scored on the more conservative end of the ideology scale.

https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/politics-and-the-life-sciences/article/embodied-roots-of-ideology-interoceptive-sensibility-moderates-the-link-between-disgust-sensitivity-and-political-orientation/D2BA674CF157C8036D3C16C8AB4384CC

[u/CoderCatgirl → u/mvea]

I wonder if the inverse is true? I was diagnosed autistic, and I feel like I've had really high body self-awareness (cause of the 'tism). I also have low disgust factor (unless its something on me I can't go wash), I have way too much sexual deviance to be judgy. And I'm pretty far left politically.

[u/KaJaHa → u/CoderCatgirl]

I am also many of these, and I have long believed that being outside the cultural norm of any one thing (neurodivergence, sexual deviance, etc) makes it that much easier to explore outside the cultural norms elsewhere. Because this thing everyone said was bad and weird isn't actually bad at all, so what else have I been making false assumptions about?

Exploration expands boundaries, which increases empathy for people outside your in-group, which makes conservative ideology less palatable.

[u/jio87 → u/mvea]

Purely anecdotal, but I don't know many people who are into meditation, yoga, qigong, or other interoception-fostering practices who are politically conservative.

[u/DTFH_ → u/jio87]

Purely anecdotal, but I don't know many people who are into meditation, yoga, qigong, or other interoception-fostering practices who are politically conservative.

Hanging in the crowd, you'll find a ton of people who do not apply any of their practice to their life and their life to practice. You know how many meditators have sat down after drinking a few pints, despite their proclivity to drink a few pints? Almost zero when you ask them and they look at me like I was the odd man out.

[u/outremonty]

Disgust is a product of shame. Toxic shame and it's cousin shamelessness explains the entire conservative worldview.

[u/Full-Contest1281]

But somehow they are never disgusted by the worst kinds of injustices.

[u/Cookbooksandbourbon → u/Full-Contest1281]

Well they generally feel that they will never be affected by those injustices, while they live in deadly fear of gay men treating them the way they themselves treat women. 

[u/twoiseight → u/Full-Contest1281]

Contemporarily speaking, I'd assume this is because they favor a media environment that shields them from having to consider such injustices.

[u/False_Wolf_391 → u/Full-Contest1281]

Tribalism.

The youth pastor had a relationship with a 13 year old girl. You grew up with the pastor, he was always a nice guy. You know the girl's family, they are trash.

A normal response would be to hate the pedophile, but the tribe agrees that the girl seduced him. Church members that don't agree go along to not make waves.

It's gross

[u/SquareWheel → u/[deleted]]

Huh? It was an N of 632 and published in August 2026. Are you referring to a previous study?

[u/ViceMaiden]

"The authors suggest that when people are less tuned into their actual physical sensations, they might rely more on socially acquired meanings to interpret their feelings. Disgust is a complex emotion shaped by culture, and conservative political frameworks often place a heavy emphasis on moral purity."

The possible implications here are wild.

[u/Cru_Jones86]

Interesting article. I would have expected the opposite to be true though. It doesn't explain why conservatives AREN'T disgusted by pedophilia.

[u/TenOfOne]

This is surprising considering fact that women are overrepresented among Democrats and women consistently have higher disgust sensitivities than men. I'd actually be really interested in seeing how things breakdown along gender lines as well.

Edit: I'd still be interested in seeing a gender breakdown, but after reading for a bit I'm convinced that it is (1) because women have higher interoceptive sensibility like several commentors suggested and (2) because the gender gap in disgust sensitivity is significantly smaller for moral disgust than it is for pathogen driven disgust and sexual disgust.

[u/Affectionate_Neat868 → u/TenOfOne]

Political-psychology research has repeatedly found associations between these forms of threat sensitivity, physiological reactivity, disgust sensitivity, and more socially conservative attitudes. Basically people who are predisposed to and/or easily influenced by fear/disgust tend to be more socially conservative

[u/azenpunk → u/Affectionate_Neat868]

Socially conservative in this context can be read as reliance on dominance hierarchies

[u/MrVeazey → u/azenpunk]

That is what conservatism has historically conserved.

[u/Randolpho → u/TenOfOne]

Women are just likely more in tune with their bodies than men. It takes both high disgust reactivity and low interoceptive sensibility to fit into the bucket OP suggests

[u/CalicoValkyrie → u/TenOfOne]

But, there sure are a lot of men grossed out about changing diapers and women having hairy legs.

[u/crusoe → u/TenOfOne]

I would argue they have higher bodily awareness for a few obvious reasons 

[u/Enachtigal → u/TenOfOne]

I would not be surprised if they controlled for gender

[u/Shepher27 → u/TenOfOne]

You’re forgetting the low self awareness part

[u/truthinessembargo]

Well that squares with the Stanford photo experiment in which AI was asked to predict the political party of Congress members from face shots. The distinguishing feature for the GOP was an expression of disgust.