TY - JOUR
T1 - The animal origins of disgust
T2 - reports of basic disgust in nonhuman great apes
AU - Case, Trevor I.
AU - Stevenson, Richard J.
AU - Byrne, Richard W.
AU - Hobaiter, Catherine
PY - 2020/7
Y1 - 2020/7
N2 - Intrinsic to an evolved disease avoidance account of disgust is Darwin's assumption of continuity between the emotional lives of humans and animals. However, beyond the case of avoiding stimuli that taste bad, there has been little exploration of the existence of basic disgust elicitors in animals. Moreover, one influential perspective holds that disgust is unique to humans-a preadaptation of distaste that expands through culture to include a wide range of elicitors (e.g., Rozin, 2015). The present study represents a broad-scope investigation into disgust-like responses that might be present in nonhuman great ape species. A survey of aversions, contamination reactions, and signs of disgust in nonhuman great apes (principally chimpanzees) was collected from 74 great ape researchers, fieldworkers, and keepers. Overall, the results suggest that nonhuman great apes share with humans an aversion to a restricted range of core pathogen sources, which extends beyond distaste to resemble human disgust. However, in nonhuman great apes, this aversion is muted. Candidates for this difference between humans and other great apes are considered, including frequent exposure to basic disgust elicitors in nonhuman great apes and increased dependence on meat-eating in hominin ancestry. We suggest that differences in disgust- like behavior between humans and nonhuman great apes reflect the specific ecological standpoint of the animal and that rather than being unique to humans, disgust is a continuation of the armory of disease avoidance behavior ubiquitous in animals.
AB - Intrinsic to an evolved disease avoidance account of disgust is Darwin's assumption of continuity between the emotional lives of humans and animals. However, beyond the case of avoiding stimuli that taste bad, there has been little exploration of the existence of basic disgust elicitors in animals. Moreover, one influential perspective holds that disgust is unique to humans-a preadaptation of distaste that expands through culture to include a wide range of elicitors (e.g., Rozin, 2015). The present study represents a broad-scope investigation into disgust-like responses that might be present in nonhuman great ape species. A survey of aversions, contamination reactions, and signs of disgust in nonhuman great apes (principally chimpanzees) was collected from 74 great ape researchers, fieldworkers, and keepers. Overall, the results suggest that nonhuman great apes share with humans an aversion to a restricted range of core pathogen sources, which extends beyond distaste to resemble human disgust. However, in nonhuman great apes, this aversion is muted. Candidates for this difference between humans and other great apes are considered, including frequent exposure to basic disgust elicitors in nonhuman great apes and increased dependence on meat-eating in hominin ancestry. We suggest that differences in disgust- like behavior between humans and nonhuman great apes reflect the specific ecological standpoint of the animal and that rather than being unique to humans, disgust is a continuation of the armory of disease avoidance behavior ubiquitous in animals.
KW - pathogen
KW - primate
KW - disease avoidance
KW - evolution
KW - aversions
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85065984831&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1037/ebs0000175
DO - 10.1037/ebs0000175
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85065984831
SN - 2330-2925
VL - 14
SP - 231
EP - 260
JO - Evolutionary Behavioral Sciences
JF - Evolutionary Behavioral Sciences
IS - 3
ER -