Results: Scientists identified 6 types of disgust

(Source: Reuben Westmaas) Val Curtis's official title is Director of the Environmental Health Group at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, but the first job you'll see in her bio is "Disgustologist." For a new paper published in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society: Biological Sciences, she exposed a group of 2,500 participants to a series of potentially disgusting scenarios and had them rank each by its awfulness. When the hypothetical stench cleared, she was able to classify six distinct triggers sure to make most people want to hurl. Steel yourself. many of these sources of disgust can be tied to a clear source of life-threatening disease and other hazards. Rats, mosquitos, and other tiny terrors can carry deadly illnesses, and rotten-smelling meat won't do your stomach any favors. Similarly, signs of bad hygiene can preface epidemics large and small, unhygienic sex is a great way to catch something awful, and many infectious diseases are transmitted by contact with affected skin. As for the final category, well, it's certainly not true that an amputated limb is contagious, or that a homeless person is more likely to give you a disease than your coworker who just came back from the bathroom without washing his hands.