| Summary: | In line with earlier
research, a multi-phase study found a significant positive association between
a widely used measure of trait disgust and people’s tendency to favor
absolutist (non-consequentialist) restrictions on genetically modified food
(GMF). However, a more nuanced high-granularity approach showed that it was
individual sensitivity to fear (specifically, a tendency to feel "creeped out"
by strange and subtly deviant events) rather than a tendency to be disgusted
(orally inhibited) by these events that was a unique predictor of absolutist
opposition to GMF and other types of new technology. This finding is consistent
with prior theorizing and research demonstrating fear to be “the major
determiner of public perception and acceptance of risk for a wide range of
hazards” related to new technology (e.g., nuclear power) (Slovic and Peters,
2006, p. 322). The present study calls attention to the importance of
conducting future assessments of disgust (and other affective constructs) in a
manner that, among other things, recognizes the substantial disconnect between
theoretical and lay meanings of the term and illustrates how a policy-guiding
result may arise from a sheer miscommunication between a researcher and a
subject.
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