Disgust, Ethnicity, and Fiction
Post #5On December 27, the NYTimes (Molly Young) published an article--“How Disgust Explains Everything” https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/27/magazine/disgust-science.html. The article looks at Paul Rozin’s early work on disgust as an emotion that helps us know what is safe to eat. The author examines as well the evolution of scholarship to explore disgust's broader interpersonal and moral functioning.Not much was said by Young about disgust in intergroup relations so I want to comment a bit on that subject. Disgust frequently operates powerfully and lethally in intergroup relations. Characterizations of the ‘other’ as disgusting have through the centuries been associated with acts of extreme violence—including [...]