Canadians who feel disgust towards sitting on the toilet seat of a public bathroom are in general more socially conservative, tend to vote for conservatives, & favor conservative policies on issues like gay rights & immigration

The political phenotype of the disgust sensitive: Correlates of a new abbreviated measure of disgust sensitivity. Patrick Fourniera, Michael Bang Petersen, Stuart Sorok. Electoral Studies, Volume 72, August 2021, 102347. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.electstud.2021.102347

Abstract: The fields of political psychology and election studies often live separate lives. One reason has been the difficulty of including long psychological question batteries in the high-quality, representative samples that are the hallmark of election studies. In this study, we examine a novel one-item measure of psychological differences in sensitivity to one particular emotion: disgust. We demonstrate that disgust sensitivity serves as a foundational political difference that colors a very large range of social and political attitudes and behaviors: including ideology, political engagement, reactions towards outgroups, support for government intervention, behavior during a pandemic, and vote choice.

Keywords: Disgust sensitivityElection studyIdeologyVote choicePolicy attitudesGroup ratings