The Behavioral Immune System Shapes Political Intuitions: Why and How Individual Differences in Disgust Sensitivity Underlie Opposition to Immigration

2017/04/19 by Lene Aarøe, Michael Bang Petersen, Kevin Arceneaux · 1 citation
Neuroscience · Social Sciences · Psychology · #Psychology of Moral and Emotional Judgment #Social and Intergroup Psychology #Emotions and Moral Behavior #Disgust #Immigration #Opposition (politics) #Politics #Social psychology #Psychology #Ethnic group #Cognitive psychology #Political science #Law #Anger

paper · doi:10.1017/s0003055416000770

openalex publication_date 2017/04/19 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/04

Abstract

We present, test, and extend a theoretical framework that connects disgust, a powerful basic human emotion, to political attitudes through psychological mechanisms designed to protect humans from disease. These mechanisms work outside of conscious awareness, and in modern environments, they can motivate individuals to avoid intergroup contact by opposing immigration. We report a meta-analysis of previous tests in the psychological sciences and conduct, for the first time, a series of tests in nationally representative samples collected in the United States and Denmark that integrate the role of disgust and the behavioral immune system into established models of emotional processing and political attitude formation. In doing so, we offer an explanation for why peaceful integration and interaction between ethnic majority and minorities is so hard to achieve.

Citations

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Cited by

• Opposition to immigration [wikipedia]