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Body odour disgust sensitivity predicts authoritarian attitudes
Stockholm University, Faculty of Social Sciences, Department of Psychology, Personality, Social and Developmental Psychology. University of Catanzaro, Italy; University of Rome, Italy; RCCS Santa Lucia Foundation, Italy.ORCID iD: 0000-0001-6708-1253
Stockholm University, Faculty of Social Sciences, Department of Psychology, Personality, Social and Developmental Psychology.
Stockholm University, Faculty of Social Sciences, Department of Psychology, Perception and psychophysics.
Stockholm University, Faculty of Social Sciences, Department of Psychology, Personality, Social and Developmental Psychology.
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Number of Authors: 72018 (English)In: Royal Society Open Science, E-ISSN 2054-5703, Vol. 5, no 2, article id 171091Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

Authoritarianism has resurfaced as a research topic in political psychology, as it appears relevant to explain current political trends. Authoritarian attitudes have been consistently linked to feelings of disgust, an emotion that is thought to have evolved to protect the organism from contamination. We hypothesized that body odour disgust sensitivity (BODS) might be associated with authoritarianism, as chemo-signalling is a primitive system for regulating interpersonal contact and disease avoidance, which are key features also in authoritarianism. We used well-validated scales for measuring BODS, authoritarianism and related constructs. Across two studies, we found that BODS is positively related to authoritarianism. In a third study, we showed a positive association between BODS scores and support for Donald Trump, who, at the time of data collection, was a presidential candidate with an agenda described as resonating with authoritarian attitudes. Authoritarianism fully explained the positive association between BODS and support for Donald Trump. Our findings highlight body odour disgust as a new and promising domain in political psychology research. Authoritarianism and BODS might be part of the same disease avoidance framework, and our results contribute to the growing evidence that contemporary social attitudes might be rooted in basic sensory functions.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
2018. Vol. 5, no 2, article id 171091
Keywords [en]
olfaction, behavioural immune system, authoritarianism, body odours, social conservatism
National Category
Psychology
Research subject
Psychology
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:su:diva-154601DOI: 10.1098/rsos.171091ISI: 000426465700018PubMedID: 29515834OAI: oai:DiVA.org:su-154601DiVA, id: diva2:1195199
Available from: 2018-04-04 Created: 2018-04-04 Last updated: 2022-03-23Bibliographically approved

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Liuzza, Marco TullioLindholm, TorunGustafsson Sendén, MarieEkström, IngridOlofsson, Jonas K.

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