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Operation of the Laws of Sympathetic Magic in Disgust and Other Domains
Abstract
Investigated the operation of 2 laws of sympathetic magic in 50 American adults (aged 17–50 yrs) using both measurements in the laboratory and questionnaire response. The 1st law, contagion, holds that "once in contact, always in contact." That is, there can be a permanent transfer of properties from one object (usually animate) to another by brief contact. The 2nd law, similarity, holds that "the image equals the object" and that action taken on an object affects similar objects. It was shown that drinks that had briefly contacted a sterilized, dead cockroach become undesirable and that laundered shirts previously worn by a disliked person were less desirable than those previously worn by a liked or neutral person. The law of similarity was demonstrated by showing that Ss rejected acceptable foods shaped into a form that represents a disgusting object and that Ss were less accurate at throwing darts at pictures of the faces of people they like. Evidence was found for the operation of the laws of sympathetic magic in all Ss studied. The laws of sympathetic magic correspond to the 2 basic laws of association (contiguity and similarity). The parallel is discussed, and a disgust-conditioning study to develop this parallel is reported. (29 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
... La ley del contagio describe la propensión a creer que cuando dos cosas entran en contacto, una transmite sus propiedades a la otra. Por otro lado, la ley de la similitud indica la tendencia a rechazar un estímulo inocuo simplemente porque se asemeja a otro que genera asco (Nemeroff y Rozin, 1994;Rozin et al., 1986;Rozin y Fallon, 1987). Las leyes de contagio y similitud de Rozin provienen de un cruce entre biología evolutiva y psicología, ya que se basan en cómo los humanos han desarrollado respuestas emocionales que promueven la supervivencia. ...
Este estudio analiza la estructura y fiabilidad de los factores de la Escala de Respuestas de Asco (ERA) en una muestra de hablantes de español, continuando investigaciones previas que desarrollaron y validaron preliminarmente la escala mediante análisis factoriales exploratorios. El análisis factorial confirmatorio respalda un modelo trifactorial sobre un modelo unifactorial hipotético, mostrando un ajuste superior. Los resultados sugieren que el modelo trifactorial se ajusta adecuadamente a los datos, respaldando la validez de la ERA. Se destacan limitaciones en el método de estimación y los datos. Se halló una buena fiabilidad en el AFC, coherente con análisis previos. Se insta a investigar en poblaciones clínicas, adolescentes e infantiles, considerando la inclusión del tratamiento del asco en psicoterapias
I investigate the lynching of African Americans (particularly the most spectacular and repulsive examples, involving prolonged torture, cheering crowds, etc.) and argue that both structural and psychological approaches are needed to understand the savage behavior involved. While distal (economic, cultural) causes may lead to political and social competition and/or racist ideologies (as sociologists and historians have maintained), demeaning associations (especially bestial hypersexuality) routinely attached to African Americans elicited the emotion of disgust at the proximate, psychological level. While other groups suffered prejudice, segregation, and lynching, the almost exclusive victims of the extreme “spectacle” lynchings described above were African American men. Demeaning associations and disgust are not limited to this example, and need to be considered in other cases of violence toward out-groups and hate crimes generally. This approach reflects recent attempts to take emotions more seriously within social scientific explanations of behavior. It should also expand existing attempts at intervention, as dealing with individual emotions elicited by dehumanizing associations need to be part of the plan.
Artification, the transformation of non‐artistic objects, practices, or domains into art or art‐like entities, has emerged as a pivotal concept in philanthropy and marketing. This paper develops a conceptual and theoretical framework to examine artification, emphasizing its capacity to add cultural, emotional, and symbolic value across diverse domains. By synthesizing interdisciplinary perspectives, the framework identifies five key components of artification: art infusion, contextual recontextualization, cultural capital accumulation, market and institutional legitimation, and public perception. These elements interact dynamically, illustrating how artification enhances consumer engagement, legitimizes social causes, and elevates brand identity. The framework highlights artification's implications for the third sector, where it strengthens advocacy efforts and fosters emotional resonance, while also critically addressing tensions between authenticity and commodification. This research contributes to understanding artification's transformative potential, offering practical insights for organizations aiming to integrate art into their strategies for differentiation, legitimacy, and societal impact.
The Cambridge Handbook of Moral Psychology is an essential guide to the study of moral cognition and behavior. Originating as a philosophical exploration of values and virtues, moral psychology has evolved into a robust empirical science intersecting psychology, philosophy, anthropology, sociology, and neuroscience. Contributors to this interdisciplinary handbook explore a diverse set of topics, including moral judgment and decision making, altruism and empathy, and blame and punishment. Tailored for graduate students and researchers across psychology, philosophy, anthropology, neuroscience, political science, and economics, it offers a comprehensive survey of the latest research in moral psychology, illuminating both foundational concepts and cutting-edge developments.
Across three experiments conducted for this research, it is evident that limited cognitive resources do play a role in the influence of product contagion effects. This research examines how cognitive resource limitations affect consumer evaluations of the product contagion. Results indicate that consumers have the ability to process a product context and to transfer stronger negative contagion effects when they expend less cognitive effort on fewer products or when they are under low cognitive load conditions. In addition, we also use good gestalt to explore the negative contagion effects. Consumers could expend fewer cognitive resources and lower their evaluations when products are arranged in a high degree of closure. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed.
Laser marking is an innovative and eco-friendly alternative to plastic sticker labeling of organic fruits, with no known negative side effects. Still, based on Ram and Sheth’s innovation resistance theory, we predict that this food eco-innovation applied to the produce may lead to ambivalent responses, with consumers valuing its eco-friendliness but fearing health risks. Drawing on Festinger’s cognitive dissonance theory, we predict that consumers actively attempt to resolve the ambivalence by adapting their beliefs about laser marking to situation-specific realities. Finally, based on Nemeroff and Rozin’s contagion theory, we predict that an important situation-specific reality for this eco-innovation is fruit peel edibility, which moderates the found relationships. These hypotheses are tested in three between-subjects experiments (Study 1 – 396 participants; Study 2 – 390 participants; Study 3 – 346 participants). Participants were exposed to scenarios presenting an organic fruit with a laser-marked or plastic sticker label, on an edible or non-edible peel. As predicted, we find that laser marking decreases perceived eco-friendliness, because of anticipation of food waste, and reduces perceived healthfulness, because of fear of contamination, both depending on whether the fruit’s peel is edible or not. Implications for managers include the need to educate consumers about the benefits and risks of this technology. For a start, laser marking should probably be limited to fruits with non-edible peels.
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to empirically test the artist contagion effect. This effect suggests that the physical contact of the artist in creating the art leads to a transfer of the artist’s essence onto the artwork featured on a product, thereby enhancing consumers’ willingness to pay for such products featuring this art.
Design/methodology/approach
This research conducted four online experimental studies to examine the artist contagion effect.
Findings
This research first uncovered the transfer of the artist’s essence onto the art featured on a product, providing the foundation for the proposed artist contagion (prestudy). Following this, this research validated the artist contagion effect (Study 1) and then ruled out potential alternative explanations for the effect (Study 2). Lastly, this research demonstrated that the immorality of the artist can limit the artist contagion effect (Study 3).
Research limitations/implications
The perception of luxury has been regarded as a mediator explaining why a product featuring art can command a high product valuation. By conceptualizing and verifying the artist contagion effect, this research introduces another mediator, the artist’s essence, accountable for even a greater product valuation.
Practical implications
Visual artists should be included in the marketing of products featuring art. Marketers should communicate the physical contact that occurred during the creation of the art featured on a product.
Originality/value
This research highlights the crucial role of visual artists in the marketing of products featuring art, a role often overlooked in the extensively researched art infusion effect.
Magical thinking has perplexed anthropological theorists for nearly a century. At least three perspectives are extant: (1) Magic is a form of science, a relatively effective set of canons and procedures for acquiring knowledge and exercising control (see, e. g., Levi-Strauss 1966); (2) magic is a form of fantasy, an irrational symbolic attempt to influence uncontrollable events (see, e.g., Malinowski 1954); (3) magic is a form of rhetoric, a persuasive communication designed to arouse sentiments rather than make truth claims about what goes with what in experience (see, e.g., Tambiah 1973). This study presents an alternative, cognitive-processing, account of magical thinking. Magical thinking is an expansion of a universal disinclination of normal adults to draw correlational lessons from their experiences. Correlation and contingency are relatively complex concepts that are not spontaneously available to human thought and are not to be found in the reasoning of most normal adults in all cultures. In the ...
Although it seems likely that family experience should be a major factor in the acquisition of food preferences and attitudes to foods, prior research has not justified assignment of a significant portion of variance to family influences. The present study compared young adults with their parents and explored attitudes to food, especially sensitivity to cleanliness and contamination of foods, as well as food preferences. Questionnaires were answered by 17 Christian and 17 Jewish university students, their parents, and 41 11–36 yr old siblings. Results indicate small positive parent–child correlations for food preferences and considerably larger correlations in the area of disgust or contamination sensitivity. Children's preferences and attitudes were about equally related to those of their mother and father. Some small ethnic-group effects were found in contamination sensitivity; these were minor in comparison to the family effects. (18 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
A previous study by the 1st 2 authors and P. Pliner (see record
1984-20070-001) of 3.5–12 yr old children and adults showed that trace contamination responses do not appear in most children until the age of 7 yrs or older and that associational contamination is rare before 12 yrs of age. However, these conclusions were based on responses to stories. In the present study, acceptability was measured by the child's behavior toward objects (cookie, comb, and juice) that were actually contaminated with insects or human hair. Ss were 29 children from an upper-middle-class suburb of Philadelphia and 38 children from an inner-city Italian neighborhood; all Ss were aged between 3.5 and 12.5 yrs. Results confirm the prior findings as to the age of onset of both types of contamination and extend the range of contaminating substances studied to include human residues (in this case, hair). The onset of contamination responses may be influenced both by the achievement of a requisite level of cognitive development (e.g., appreciation of the particulate nature of matter) and by the prior establishment of a category of disgust. (13 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Despite many efforts at definition, pollution remains an amorphous and ill-defined concept. The distinctive characteristics of polluting substances, and that which differentiates them from simple dirt or mess, are still subjects of confusion and controversy, as are their occasional positive uses. This article discusses the pollution theory of one New Guinea Highland people, the Hua, and examines the concepts of pollution in some ethnographic literature of Papua New Guinea and South Asia as well as the more general theory of pollution proposed by Mary Douglas. These concept and theories cannot a account for the Hua data. The article concludes with a new theory of pollution which is adequate to account for pollution ideas in Hua society and possibly that of middle class North American society as well.
Classical conditioning experiments are reviewed in which the dependent variables are subjective responses, typically involving the evaluation of stimulus materials. These experiments suggest that classical conditioning produces a positive or negative change in the evaluation of previously neutral stimuli. We re-interpret these studies as well as presenting data of our own to support the view that apparently disparate conditioning techniques have an underlying common mechanism — the elicitation and transfer of an evaluative response.We postulate that a subjective evaluative response, rather than implicit or explicit behaviour acts, carries the mechanism of conditioning. This leaves free the actual repertoire of responses (adaptive or maladaptive) in which the subject engages, and also suggests a way through the complex problem of how behaviour can be generalized outside clinical and laboratory situations. Subjective evauations are differentiated from states of pleasure (and hence from hedonism), attitude, emotions and approach—avoidance behaviour.The experiments reviewed are selected from the verbal, attitude and evaluative response conditioning literature, and they are used to shift attention from a model of classical conditioning in which the emphasis is on a specific motor or autonomic response as “the” UCR to one which substitutes a process of unmediated appraisal which we have called the evaluative response. The relevance of this formulation to behaviour theory and to behaviour therapy is discussed in relation to cognitively oriented models.
Disgust is a specific reaction towards the waste products of the human and animal body. The relation of the various types of sensations to the disgust reaction depends upon the degree of intimacy of contact which they imply and upon the degree of specific association between sensory quality and disgusting object. Food substances which in themselves are not disgusting at all may easily become so through the presence of a disgusting object or even thinking of some disgusting situation. Circumstances which make possible an association between the excretory and the sexual functions include the common taboo of shame placed on both and the close anatomical and functional relationship between the excretory and genital organs. As disgust implies mainly the fear of becoming soiled, animals which have a factual or assumed relation to dirt, such as snakes and worms, frequently arouse disgust. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
The general semiotic properties of food take particularly intense forms in the context of gastro-politics – where food is the medium, and sometimes the message, of conflict. In South Asia, where beliefs about food encode a complex set of social and moral propositions, food serves two diametrically opposed semiotic functions: it can either homogenize the actors who transact in it, or it can serve to heterogenize them. In the Tamil Brahmin community of South India, this underlying tension takes three particular forms in the arenas of the household, the marriage feast, and the temple. [food, symbolism, semiotics, politics, South India]