Yuck! The Science of Disgust
3/9/20261 hr 37 min
Disgust is a strong emotion, one designed by evolution to protect us from danger and diseases. But disgust also spills into other areas of our lives, influencing our morals, our intuitions about right and wrong, even our politics. We talk with psychologist David Pizarro about how disgust is used to persuade and divide us, and why it remains such a potent force in public life today. Then, in our latest installment of “Your Questions Answered,” Huggy Rao returns to respond to listeners’ thoughts and questions about why big ideas fail.
There's still time to join Shankar at one of our upcoming stops on Hidden Brain's live tour! Join us in Philadelphia on March 21 or New York City on March 25. And stay tuned for more tour dates to be announced soon!
Illustration by Alvaro Montoro for Unsplash
Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
Clips
Showing 10 of 12Transcript preview
First 90 secondsShankar Vedantam· Host0:00
This is Hidden Brain. I'm Shankar Vedantam. When David Pizarro was five years old, he was at a weekly church meeting with his family. The grownups went to visit with each other while the children, including David, were left to their own devices.
David Pizarro· Guest0:15
And my sister and her little friend thought that they would play a, a fun game with me, and that game involved making me lie down, close my eyes, and open my mouth.
Shankar Vedantam· Host0:24
[music] They wouldn't tell David what was going to happen. It was to be a surprise.
David Pizarro· Guest0:31
I, sort of naively trusting of my, my dear older sister, who by the way is an attorney now- [laughing] ... [laughs] sure enough, closed my eyes and opened my mouth, and I felt something soft, wet, and sort of cold in my mouth. And I immediately spit, opened my eyes, and I saw my sister and her little friend laughing.
Shankar Vedantam· Host1:00
[music] If you're eating something right now, I'd advise you to put it down.
David Pizarro· Guest1:06
What they had put in my mouth was, I don't recall exactly what food it was, but it was partially chewed food that the other little girl had [laughs] decided to chew up, put in her hand, and then stick right in my mouth.
Shankar Vedantam· Host1:23
[music] David's sister and her friend thought the whole thing was hilarious.