Prejudice Linked to Fear of Disease

This makes a lot of sense, actually.  When you listen to a bigot talk (and living in Oklahoma, you hear lots of those), one of the key words they use to slander the particular ethnic group they are speaking of is “dirty.”  Which really doesn’t make any sense, seeing as how they have just as much access to bathrooms as anyone else.  This study definitely sheds some light on that pesky problem that still haunts us.

Evolutionary psychologists suspect that prejudice is rooted in survival: Our distant ancestors had to avoid outsiders who might have carried disease. Research still shows that when people feel vulnerable to illness, they exhibit more bias toward stigmatized groups. But a new study in Psychological Science, a journal published by the Association for Psychological Science suggests there might be a modern way to break that link.

(Picture unrelated…to lighten the mood. Though Batpug does hate bigots.)

[Science Daily]