The Purpose of Disgust & Contempt

Today we're talking about two sometimes related emotions — disgust and contempt. Disgust helps keep us alive by letting us know something is unhealthy. This is obvious with things like rotting meat or dog poop, but we can also experience ideological disgust.

Contempt serves as a self-preservation technique, meaning when we look at somebody else as though they're beneath us, we can protect ourselves from a dangerous situation. Contempt is necessary for wars, imperialism, and colonization. It's very difficult to inflict pain on another person unless you think they're not like you. That's where contempt comes in.

When we cling too tightly to our beliefs, it becomes difficult to separate our selfhood or identity from our beliefs. This can lead to ideological disgust when we're faced with opposing viewpoints (originating from a perceived threat to our identity), which can quickly escalate to contempt for another person. Be mindful of your disgust response, particularly when it's a reaction to somebody's beliefs. Ask yourself — is the belief you're reacting to truly harmful? Particularly online, are you speaking to add value to the conversation, or are you squawking to protect your own tightly-held beliefs and projections?

This is our final video in our emotional functioning series! Thank you for watching. If you're interested in the rest of the series, the playlist link is below.

Mentioned in this video
→ Emotional Functioning playlist    • Emotional Functioning  
→ The Psychology of Emotions by Carroll Izard https://g.co/kgs/YGB7tj
→ Emotional Functioning - Surprise    • Unveiling The Hidden Purpose Of Surpr...  
→ Dr. Christian Conte    / @drchristianconte  

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