Psychologist, David Pizarro delves into the world of facial expressions, in particular the universal facial expression of Disgust, first conveyed by Darwin in the late 19th century, and its evolutionary benefits for human survival.
What Pizarro notes is that disgust has evolved to not only to include items that might poison or hurt us (disease) but has come to dominate our moral norms as well. We express the same disgust response to moral digressions that reflect ideologies that we do not support.
Watch Pizarro’s TED Talk demonstrating a correlation between sensitivity to disgusting cues — a photo of feces, an unpleasant odor — and moral and political conservatism.
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5YL3LT1ZvOM[/youtube]