Disgust is a factor in extreme prejudice

Abstract

Understanding intergroup prejudice is a dominant research focus for social psychology. Prejudice is usually conceptualized as a continuum of positive/negative affect, but this has limitations. It neither reflects people's ability to maintain simultaneous positive and negative stereotypes of others nor explains extreme prejudice (bigotry). Some researchers have proposed multidimensional models of prejudice in which different negative emotions are evoked depending on the situation. Extending this to bigotry raises the question of which emotions are most relevant. Therefore, this study looked at 'anti-group' texts--writings which promote extreme intergroup hostility--and analysed the frequency of emotive language. Findings suggest that bigotry may be distinguished by high levels of disgust.