An interesting article has recently come out in PLoS ONE investigating the link between smell and socio-political views. Previous work has shown that disgust sensitivity is linked to conservative views and this may be due to disease and pathogen transfer (Inbar et al 2012). This could be a reason for people in countries with higher rates of disease having more conservative views, but this is just hyperbole by me. This current work shows that participants in a treatment were they are exposed to an unpleasant odour, butyric acid, exhibit more conservative views than participants in a control treatment. That means that our socio-political views are not as fixed as me might think and that our environment may influence our views on a very short time scale. My office mate pointed out that butryic acid is a component of stink bombs that routinely get let off in abortion clinic, the culprits may be smarter than they think as these results show that it might make the 'liberal' people in such establishments more conservative. It also raises an important question in the UK at the moment: did UKIP use butyric acid to increase their votes? We'll never know!
Adams TG, Stewart PA, Blanchar JC (2014) Disgust and the Politics of Sex: Exposure to a Disgusting Odorant Increases Politically Conservative Views on Sex and Decreases Support for Gay Marriage. PLoS ONE 9(5): e95572. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0095572
Disgust has been implicated as a potential causal agent underlying socio-political attitudes and behaviors. Several recent studies have suggested that pathogen disgust may be a causal mechanism underlying social conservatism. However, the specificity of this effect is still in question. The present study tested the effects of disgust on a range of policy preferences to clarify whether disgust is generally implicated in political conservatism across public policy attitudes or is uniquely related to specific content domains. Self-reported socio-political attitudes were compared between participants in two experimental conditions: 1) an odorless control condition, and 2) a disgusting odor condition. In keeping with previous research, the present study showed that exposure to a disgusting odor increased endorsement of socially conservative attitudes related to sexuality. In particular, there was a strong and consistent link between induced disgust and less support for gay marriage.
http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0095572#pone.0095572-Smith1
Adams TG, Stewart PA, Blanchar JC (2014) Disgust and the Politics of Sex: Exposure to a Disgusting Odorant Increases Politically Conservative Views on Sex and Decreases Support for Gay Marriage. PLoS ONE 9(5): e95572. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0095572
Disgust has been implicated as a potential causal agent underlying socio-political attitudes and behaviors. Several recent studies have suggested that pathogen disgust may be a causal mechanism underlying social conservatism. However, the specificity of this effect is still in question. The present study tested the effects of disgust on a range of policy preferences to clarify whether disgust is generally implicated in political conservatism across public policy attitudes or is uniquely related to specific content domains. Self-reported socio-political attitudes were compared between participants in two experimental conditions: 1) an odorless control condition, and 2) a disgusting odor condition. In keeping with previous research, the present study showed that exposure to a disgusting odor increased endorsement of socially conservative attitudes related to sexuality. In particular, there was a strong and consistent link between induced disgust and less support for gay marriage.
http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0095572#pone.0095572-Smith1
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