A reader emails – WaPo highlights that Trump used disgust to increase conservatism among his audience:
On Monday night, Donald Trump made his latest polarizing comment, saying it was “too disgusting” to talk about Hillary Clinton’s use of the bathroom during the last Democratic debate and that she had got “schlonged” by Barack Obama when she lost to him in the 2008 Democratic primary…
In fact, a growing mass of academic research has shown that conservatives have a particular revulsion to “disgusting” images. In this line of thinking, Trump’s decision to describe Clinton, one of the most disliked people by conservatives, as a “disgusting” figure would have been an especially powerful way to rile up his supporters.
Disgust turns on the amygdala, just like threat, discomfort, frustration, and anger. Once an amygdala is up and running, you see more bad stuff, and are more driven to deal with it.
Then this happened:
Others have suggested that disgusting images can even alter people’s political leanings.
A 2012 paper by Cornell University researchers tested the response of students to the presence of a hand sanitizer. The researchers asked random students a series of questions about their backgrounds and political leanings in a university building, and then asked them either to step over to the empty side of the hallway or to “step over to the hand-santizer dispenser to complete the questionnaire.”
The study found that “participants who reported their political attitudes in the presence of the hand-sanitizer dispenser reported a less liberal political orientation … than did participants in the control condition.” The researchers then ran a second, similar study and found the same response.
“It is worth noting that the cleanliness reminder used in these studies was quite subtle — in one case, through simple exposure to a public hand-sanitizer station and in another case via a sign on the laboratory wall reminding experimenters to wash their hands,” the researchers write.
Notice that something as subtle as being asked a question next to a bottle of hand sanitizer can drive a more conservative political outlook in people.
What happens when Hillary stops the Democratic debate to take a dump on live TV, and then comes out with a giant smile right after it, while holding her hands up to wave them at people, as if to highlight she just had them somewhere you don’t want to know….
Apocalypse cometh™ and it is disgusting.
[…] By Anonymous Conservative […]