Patrick and Lieberman on How Disgust Becomes Law

Carlton Patrick and Debra Lieberman, both University of Miami, are publishing How Disgust Becomes Law in The Moral Psychology of Disgust (Nina Strominger and Victor Kumar, eds., Rowman and Littlefield, 2018). Here is the abstract.

This chapter provides a psychological examination of the many ways in which disgust permeates the law. Using an evolutionary lens, the chapter explores the various adaptive functions of disgust, and shows how those functions can be co-opted by psychological systems designed to generate and enforce moral norms. In doing so, the chapter also provides an explanation for why and how many of the behaviors we view as "disgusting" tend to become behaviors we label "wrong."

Download the essay from SSRN at the link.