“they found a correlation between being more easily disgusted and political conservatism.’

via Easily Grossed Out? You Might Be A Conservative!.

This is quite interesting. Not only were conservative more easily grossed out, but they were likely to equate their personal repugnance with moral wrong or purity. The report says, “Liberals and conservatives disagree about whether disgust has a valid place in making moral judgments…Conservatives have argued that there is inherent wisdom in repugnance; that feeling disgusted about something — gay sex between consenting adults, for example — is cause enough to judge it wrong or immoral, even lacking a concrete reason. Liberals tend to disagree, and are more likely to base judgments on whether an action or a thing causes actual harm.”

This is Bush’s “gut” talking. Note that this kind of person judges “lacking a concrete reason.” This is ironic in those who profess religious faith, as most religions have a “judge not, lest ye shall be judged” admonition.

In the intellectual sphere, Piaget‘s explorations of intellectual development suggest that someone who has not reached the adult maturity level of abstraction, is likely to be unable to take the perspective of others, and thus reasons from their own small mind alone — or maybe it is from their gut.

You gut is good guide to your personal opinions, but it is best to look beyond that, try and see issues from multiple points of view, and judge the right or wrongness of something based on evidence and facts.

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