a brave new world without disgust

marc hauser thinks that disgust is the root of many woes. but not to fear, we may have a solution:

"modern molecular techniques will one day find a way to cure Huntington's, but along the way, work out a method to crank down or turn off our disgust response, while preserving our motor systems"

hauser correctly notes that disgust is involved in many awful things such as india's caste system, war, genocide. however, involved in and responsible for can be two very different things.

moreover, disgust can be a powerful positive force as well. for example, disgust may be partially responsible for the cast system, but modern efforts to eradicate it are also motivated partially based on the exact same emotion. disgust at hunger, homelessness, and other woes motivates many individuals to do good work. perhaps we would still be motivated to enact change without this emotion, as (semi)rational humans, but would our motivation be as powerful? probably not. we should be careful in vilifying certain feelings - and proposing the permanent elimination of them - because of the actions of a few.

Labels: misc. psych, social