| Popis: |
Ideological extremism combines strict adherence to a doctrine with intense outgroup hostility. One lens through which to investigate extremism is the behavioural immune system, a collection of psychological processes that putatively function to reduce infection risk. Disgust sensitivity (which is part of the behavioural immune system) has been associated with extreme right-wing attitudes, such as authoritarianism, support for group inequalities, and ethnocentrism. Nevertheless, it remains unclear whether right-wing extremism is specifically associated with disgust towards human pathogen cues. In addition, most work to date has relied on data from participants who are unlikely to hold ideologically extreme views. We investigated the relationship between disgust sensitivity and extremism by recruiting people who frequent extreme online spaces, where racist, neo-Nazi and white nationalist discussion is common, as well as people who frequent only mainstream platforms. Disgust towards human pathogen cues (blood, sores and sweat) was associated with extreme ideological attitudes while disgust towards nonhuman pathogen cues (dog faeces, cockroaches and mould) was not. These findings suggest that extreme - and specifically human-focused - disgust sensitivity is associated with ideological extremism and a self-reported willingness to engage in violence against others. |
