How to use emotions?
Fear and disgust are both are responsible for keeping us away from my
potential danger. For example; while you walking through the woods after sunset
and you hear some suspicious noise, your heart starts to beat faster, you might
feel cold, your muscles get tense and you became more alert. That is called
fear. Your adrenal glands produce adrenaline which is responsible for
fight-or-flight response. In moment of fear you can either run away or fight
and both of these solutions are more likely to keep you safe than just walking
through these woods without any concern about possible danger. The same goes
for disgust. When you pick up your favorite dish and you see some white or
green fur you won't eat it. Your brain knows that this "fur" is mould
and there is possibility that after consuming that used-to-be delicious slice
of pizza you can end up dead. Or at least at the hospital bed.
Disgust prevents human from taking harmful actions but the problem is that disgust and fear are the easiest emotions to manipulate. You learn them through the association and that feature has been used repeatedly in history. During WWII German Nazi decided that the best way for spreading hatred towards Jews is to start from the youngest age. It resulted in crating anti-Semitic children book when they described how and why Jews are disgusting. Of course, the word "disgusting" was never used. It was the smart move because people were not aware of the fact that the emotions they felt were created by other people and not because of biological factors.
What is interesting, disgust is not only manipulated through vivid descriptions or nasty images where you are shown and presented clearly what is your threat. Some researches were carried out and the proven that liberal people are harder to disgust than conservative. That explains why sometimes the political views are extreme. If used in correct way during voting, our senses would manipulate the voters o choose certain political party. Thankfully it is illegal, because I can't imagine the world where my own immune system and natural instincts that are meant to keep me safe, would be used to manipulate my thoughts. Or maybe they already are and I just can't see it?
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