Anger is intimately linked with aggression. Much research has shown that people who chronically experience anger also tend to be more likely to lash out at others in hostile ways. No surprise there. But what about disgust?
Recent work has suggested that the image of the school-yard pacifist with nose in the air looking down on the two kids pummeling each other while saying, "You disgust me" may have some scientific import, but in the opposite direction than most people think.
A new paper just released examines the relation between disgust sensitivity and aggression. Feelings of disgust have long been known to cause one to avoid things. If food smells bad, don't eat it. If a person looks diseased, don't touch him. But research has also shown that some of us are more susceptible to feelings of disgust than others -- or, put differently, some of us just feel disgust more frequently and intensely. This fact, in and of itself, may not be so surprising. But what the researchers found next was. Through tracking people's levels of aggression both in the past and longitudinally (i.e., as it unfolded during the time the people were taking part in the studies), the team found that people who were higher in disgust sensitivity were much less likely to engage in aggressive actions. It didn't matter if the possible targets of aggression were strangers or romantic partners; people who more easily felt disgust simply acted less violently.
