2017 Personality 20: Biology & Traits: Orderliness/Disgust/Conscientiousness

0:00[Music]

0:12so we're going to discuss some very

0:14rough things today um maybe you're

0:18somewhat accustomed to that already but

0:20this is particularly brutal I think um

0:23I'm going to tell talk to you about a

0:25body of research that's been produced

0:26over about the last 10 years and I think

0:29it it's per perhaps it's it's a body of

0:32research that might outline some of the

0:34most important things that psychologists

0:36have ever discovered it's really changed

0:38my view for example on what happened in

0:41Nazi Germany which we're going to talk

0:42about a lot today and you know we've

0:45already talked a fair bit about the

0:47temperamental determinance of political

0:49belief right and I've made a case for

0:51you

0:52that people who are liberal or lean to

0:55the left tend to be high in trade

0:56openness and low in trait

0:58conscientiousness especially orderliness

1:00and people on the right tend to be low

1:01in openness and high in

1:03conscientiousness especially orderliness

1:05and the effect is not trivial if you

1:07look at just voting behavior then you

1:10get the typical sort of effect sizes

1:12that are characteristic of Personality

1:14research. 2 to point4 something like

1:16that correlations but if you start to

1:17analyze people's political beliefs in

1:19detail so so you get your measurement up

1:22to the point where it's nice and

1:23reliable and nice and valid then

1:25temperament uh accounts for a

1:27substantial a substantially higher

1:29proportion of the the variance and so a

1:31lot of what people seem to do is one

1:34thing you could think of is that they

1:36they they they politicize their

1:39temperament by constructing post Hawk

1:42arguments about the way the world is but

1:44it's deeper than that you see because we

1:47already know that you have to use

1:48filtering mechanisms in order to orient

1:50yourself in the world right because the

1:52world is just too complicated for you to

1:53orient yourself without using filtering

1:56mechanisms and the question is well what

1:58are the filtering mechanisms and to a

2:00large degree they're your temperamental

2:02proclivities because they set up your

2:04value structure for example and that

2:06sets up your perceptual frame and so

2:08what that means is that you screen the

2:11world at the level of the facts that

2:13display themselves to you because you

2:14know you could say well you're a

2:16dispassionate Observer of the universe

2:18of facts and that you extract out the

2:21conclusions that a reasonable person

2:23would extract out from that body of

2:25facts but unfortunately that's not the

2:26case because your perceptions are biased

2:29by your temperament and they have to be

2:31because well because you have to screen

2:33things and so you screen things in

2:35accordance with your temperament you

2:36know you're oriented towards certain

2:38things in the world certain values for

2:39example and that's a perfectly that's

2:41perfectly reasonable because you can't

2:43do everything at once anyways so there's

2:46no reason for you not to be directional

2:49the question is what are the pathologies

2:52associated with directionality now

2:54conscientiousness is a very

2:56interesting um uh trait in relationship

2:59to that because there are obvious

3:01benefits to being conscientious right I

3:03mean it's the best long-term predictor

3:05of job uh performance for example and

3:08and I'll outline some other data that

3:10might be more associated with

3:12industriousness than orderliness but

3:13there's utility to orderliness as well

3:16um and and we'll cover that in detail

3:19today the question is no the issue is

3:22that you never get a benefit without a

3:24price and so you can see that with

3:26agreeableness if you're agreeable high

3:27in agreeableness then you're

3:29compassionate and poite and you're

3:30empathic and you can work well in teams

3:32but the price you pay for that is that

3:33you don't negotiate very well on your

3:35own behalf and that you can be easily

3:36taken advantage of and then if you're

3:38very low in agreeableness well then

3:40you're more competitive and more out to

3:44win I would say but the price you pay

3:46for that is that if you become too

3:47disagreeable then you're likely to be

3:50sufficiently antisocial let's say so

3:52that you might end up in prison so you

3:55don't get a cost without a benefit you

3:57don't get a benefit without a cost so

3:59then the question might be well what's

4:01up with conscientiousness because it

4:03seems all things considered that it

4:05would be a good thing to be

4:06conscientious now I can think of some

4:08exceptions to that so conscientious

4:11people are dutiful industrious orderly

4:14that sort of

4:15thing and they tend to sacrifice the

4:18present for the future and that's a good

4:20thing so you you you save up let's say

4:22you save up wealth you save up labor and

4:24effort for the future you know uh don't

4:28live for today don't be impulsive work

4:32hard and all that that'll acrew you

4:34success over the long run the downside

4:36of that

4:38is the long run has to be stable in

4:40order for that to be a reasonable

4:42strategy and so conscientiousness is not

4:44a good strategy at least under some

4:47conditions in situations that are

4:49radically unstable because in situations

4:51that are radically unstable you might as

4:53well get where you can now or that's one

4:55way of looking at it anyways the other

4:57thing about being conscientious if you

4:58store up wealth say as a consequence of

5:00hard work then that can make you targets

5:02for people who would like to come and

5:04take your wealth and so um it it's also

5:07one of the things that happened to many

5:08people in the 20th century most recently

5:10in in Venezuela is that let's say you're

5:12conscientious and you save money well

5:15what happens in a period of

5:16hyperinflation well your money's wiped

5:18out and so you know this happened to

5:21Germany say in the 1920s and you got to

5:23understand what hyperinflation does to a

5:24society

5:26because what hyperinflation does is

5:28destroy the people who worked hardest to

5:30construct the society because they're

5:32the people who' have been prudent and

5:34careful and sacrificed and so forth and

5:36then when a period of high inflation

5:38comes along poof everything they have

5:40disappears and that happened in Germany

5:42during the 1920s now there was a bunch

5:43of reasons for that but so Germany was

5:45very unstable in the 1920s right because

5:48of the war had just ended they they had

5:51um been subjected to the Versa treaty

5:54which was a very punitive treaty aimed

5:57against Germany that it's not like the

5:58Allies had

6:00lacked reasons to impose a punitive

6:02treaty but nonetheless they did Germany

6:04lost a lot of territory including their

6:06industrial uh including their industrial

6:09areas Germany was flooded by men who

6:12were brutalized in the trenches in World

6:14War I I mean you could hardly imagine

6:16how terrible trench warfare is and you

6:18can't imagine what you'd be like after a

6:21month of that a day of that let alone a

6:23couple of years of that and then Germany

6:25underwent a period of hyperinflation at

6:27the same time in the Soviet Union the

6:28Comm Comm revolution had had been

6:33successful and so there was tremendous

6:36political upheaval in Germany during the

6:381920s as well I I want to just set the

6:40stage for that and so but the

6:42hyperinflation wiped out all the people

6:44that

6:45were prudent and saved and left them

6:48with a terrible sense that the entire

6:49system had betrayed them which is of

6:50course exactly what had happened so all

6:53right so anyways conscientiousness is a

6:56bit of a mystery you know we've looked

6:58at plasticity right

7:00already um that's a combination of

7:02extroversion and openness I just want to

7:03walk you through again where

7:04conscientiousness is located in the big

7:06five space so plasticity is a

7:08combination of extroversion and openness

7:10and then stability is a combination of

7:12conscientiousness emotional stability

7:14and agreeableness and conscientiousness

7:16is made out of industriousness and

7:18orderliness now here's here's some

7:19markers for for conscientiousness so

7:23here's what you're like if you're

7:24orderly or if you're industrious you

7:26carry out your plans you don't waste

7:28time you don't find it difficult ult to

7:29get down to work you don't mess things

7:31up you finish what you start you put

7:34your mind on the task at hand you get

7:36things done quickly you know what you're

7:38doing you don't postpone decisions and

7:40you're not easily distracted that's what

7:42an industrious person is like we don't

7:43know anything about industrious people

7:45we cannot figure out why they're

7:47industrious if you read the

7:48neuropsychological literature you might

7:50assume that people who have highly

7:52functioning prefrontal cortexes might be

7:54more conscientious because people

7:56associate the prefrontal cortex with

7:58such things has the capacity to plan the

8:01problem with that is that we've for

8:03example tested now thousands of people

8:06using tests of dorsal lateral prefrontal

8:08cognitive ability which are basically

8:10cognitive tests and as you know from

8:12being in this class if you take a

8:15battery of cognitive tests and you

8:16subject them to a factor analysis you

8:18can extract out a first factor and

8:19that's fluid intelligence and the

8:21correlation between fluid intelligence

8:22and conscientiousness is zero right so

8:26so that's that's very very strange

8:28because you would tend to think that

8:30people who were smarter might be better

8:31at planning and maybe they are but

8:33they're not necessarily better at

8:35implementing and that that's a and we

8:37don't understand the difference between

8:38planning and implementation we we don't

8:40know what that is um you got to think

8:44about it this way too though just

8:46because you're better at planning

8:47wouldn't necessarily imply that you're

8:49better at implementing because actually

8:51one of the prerequisites for thinking

8:53abstractly is that you can detach your

8:56plans from your action right because

8:58otherwise you just automatically Ally

8:59act out everything you planned but that

9:01isn't what people do they separate out

9:03their thinking so that they can work in

9:05an abstract space that's divorced from

9:07their action and so they can lay out

9:09multiple plans without necessarily

9:11acting them out but then that introduces

9:14the additional complication of having to

9:16implement and industrious people seem to

9:18be good at implementation but we don't

9:20know why we've done all sorts of

9:22laboratory studies trying to see if we

9:24could get some sort of laboratory task

9:27that industrious people would do better

9:29in the lab the non- industrious people

9:31God you'd think that would be a a snap

9:34we we've probably tested 50 things and

9:36have never got anything differences in

9:39language use is as close as we've got

9:41you can extract out estimates of

9:43people's conscientiousness or their

9:45industriousness from the way they use

9:47language but that's not a lot different

9:48than using self-report personality

9:50scills it's different but it's not a lot

9:52different so we've done things for

9:54example like imagine we present people

9:56with a row of uh H's n's M's and U's row

10:01after row of letters small type you say

10:04go through and circle all the U's well

10:07obviously you would think that that

10:08would be a task that would require

10:10diligence and industriousness you could

10:12time how long it took people to do it

10:14you could see how accurate they were

10:16correlation with conscientiousness

10:18nothing zero it's an IQ task as it turns

10:21out and so the best we've been able to

10:23do so far maybe with industriousness is

10:26and this is so vague it's embarrassing

10:29um

10:30is that we think that maybe industrious

10:31people find inactivity

10:34aversive so because they're not

10:36motivated by enthusiasm right for the

10:39task that would be an extrovert and

10:40they're not motivated by intrinsic

10:42interest in the task that would be

10:44someone who was open and they're not

10:45motivated by the desire to decrease

10:47anxiety or emotional pain because that

10:49would be someone who's high in

10:51neuroticism right and they're not

10:52motivated by the desire to Foster

10:55affiliative relationships or to compete

10:57because that looks like it loads on

10:59agreeableness it's something else it

11:02does a good job of predicting military

11:04prowess for example we we we tested a

11:07number of people who worked in the US

11:08military in a number of different places

11:10conscientiousness was a deadly predictor

11:12of of of ranking in military performance

11:16in schools like the US Naval Academy for

11:18example and also on on military bases

11:20themselves and that kind of makes sense

11:22I mean the military is a conservative

11:24place you'd expect people who were

11:26conscientious and dutiful to do better

11:27in a place like that but so they're good

11:29at they're good at implementation

11:31they're good at following orders they're

11:32good at at doing their Duty now we're

11:35starting to understand a little bit

11:37about the value concerns that

11:40conscientious people would have too and

11:41so let's go through orderliness so you

11:44can decide whether you're orderly or

11:46disorderly leave your belongings around

11:49that you're disorderly obviously if you

11:50do that like order well that's a that's

11:52a no-brainer keep things tidy follow a

11:54schedule is bothered is is bothered by

11:57messy people once everything to be just

12:00right is bothered by disorder likes

12:02routine sees that rules are observed and

12:05wants every detail taken care of you can

12:07imagine all sorts of occupations where

12:09that would be useful accounting for

12:10example or there are people who go

12:12around and check uh you know natural gas

12:14fittings and that s sort of thing by a

12:16checklist and you know you want someone

12:18like that every in any any position

12:21where careful attention to detail is

12:23absolutely vital um the question is as

12:26we said before what what's the potential

12:28downside so with industriousness we

12:31don't know anything about

12:33it here's the problem with

12:35conscientiousness okay broadly speaking

12:38there's no theoretical model nobody has

12:41any idea why people are conscientious

12:43except for the few things that I've told

12:44you there's no neuros pychological model

12:46because the prediction would be

12:48something like people who are higher in

12:51prefrontal cortical ability because

12:52that's associated with planning would be

12:53more conscientious that's not true

12:56there's no psychological model and

12:58that's partly because

13:00conscientiousness as a trait was

13:02extracted out of the linguistic pools

13:05that we described by Factor analytic

13:06processes nobody predicted that that

13:08would emerge as a fundamental trait it

13:11just came out of the statistics so there

13:13was no there's no model surrounding it

13:15really and there's no pharmacological

13:17model we don't know how to make people

13:18more conscientious with the possible

13:21exception of drugs like rlin

13:23amphetamines you know that that seem to

13:25be able to make people focus in more and

13:27so maybe there's an association to some

13:28degree

13:29between conscientiousness and the

13:31ability to pay attention but when we've

13:33used attentional tasks in the lab first

13:35of all they load on fluid intelligence

13:37and second they don't correlate with

13:39conscientiousness there's another dead

13:41end very very difficult to for it's a

13:44real mystery to me because we don't have

13:46that many good predictors of Life

13:48outcome IQ that's a good one

13:51conscientiousness that's a good one well

13:53what's

13:53conscientiousness well we don't know we

13:56don't know anything about it with the

13:58exception of the things I told you and

13:59I'm going to describe some of the other

14:01things that we found out more recently

14:07so okay so what else is useful about

14:09conscientiousness well it's strongly

14:11related to life satisfaction and

14:13happiness actually if you look at the

14:14big five if you look at the traits that

14:16are most correlated within the big five

14:19conscientiousness and neuroticism are

14:21negatively correlated make sure I got

14:24that right the more conscientious you

14:26are the less likely you are to suffer

14:27from anxiety and emotional pain and I

14:30think the reason for that but I don't

14:32know but I think the reason for that is

14:34that by being conscientious you

14:36stabilize your environment right because

14:38everything becomes more predictable more

14:40scheduled more routine you're more

14:42likely to be successful so if things

14:44aren't going wrong around you all the

14:45time then you're going to be less

14:46anxious and in less emotional pain so I

14:48don't think that there's a direct

14:50relationship between being more

14:52conscientious and less neurotic but I

14:55think there's one that's mediated by the

14:57environment and this is very interesting

14:59you see because you'll hear all sorts of

15:01social psychologists tell you and that

15:03conservatives are more likely to be high

15:06in negative emotion they're more threat

15:07sensitive say than liberals but the

15:09weird thing about that is is that the

15:11conservatives are not higher in

15:12neuroticism than liberals actually the

15:14contrary happens to be true the Liberals

15:16are slightly more neurotic than the

15:17conservatives and so if conservatives

15:19are threat sensitive because that's

15:20supposed to be the theory then why the

15:22hell don't they show up as being higher

15:24in trait neuroticism and you could say

15:25Well they're so effective at their

15:27conservatism that they've reduced their

15:29neuroticism by organizing their

15:30environment and to some degree that's

15:32true but Jesus if your theory predicts

15:35one thing and the opposite happens to be

15:37true you can't just post hawk say well

15:39there's some other reasons we didn't pay

15:40any attention to to account for that

15:43like it's really bothered me because it

15:45does seem to be the case that the

15:47political landscape is shaped to some

15:49degree by some sort of negative emotion

15:52that's broadcast at the people who are

15:53on the other side of the political

15:55Spectrum but the evidence that it's

15:57anxiety related seems to be very very

15:59thin so the question is well what else

16:01might there be so well conscientiousness

16:04is related to depression uh and guilt

16:07there's a a researcher named fard who

16:10looked to show used a meta analys to

16:12show that conscientiousness was

16:13associated with specific emotions an

16:15overall negative emotion but was most

16:17strongly associated with guilt it was

16:19most it was negatively related to guilt

16:21experience but positively related to

16:23guilt proness and so maybe guilt is the

16:26emotion that you feel when you don't do

16:27your duty something like that and that's

16:29partly why we were thinking as well it's

16:32part of it's not exactly why we were

16:34thinking that conscientiousness is

16:36motivated by uh inability to

16:40tolerate inactivity but it's it's a

16:43finding that's along the the same sort

16:45of theoretical lays out the same sort of

16:47theoretical territory so you must know

16:49people maybe the maybe the person is

16:51your mother or perhaps it's your father

16:53they come over to your place or you go

16:54over there and they're just working all

16:56the time they can't sit down and relax

16:57they just work all the time

16:59and they say they'll tell you if you ask

17:01them well I can't stand sitting around I

17:03have to be doing something and you can

17:04imagine too how that might have been

17:07selected for Across The evolutionary

17:09time span I mean if if you're living in

17:12a situation where resources are somewhat

17:14limited like we pretty much all do

17:16you're going to want you're going to

17:18demand of the people around you that

17:20they at least pull their fair share of

17:22the weight right and so you could

17:25imagine that the people who were likely

17:26to feel a negative emotion of some sort

17:29for not chipping in and doing their

17:32share or more than their share which

17:33would be an way of indicating their

17:35value to the community we more likely to

17:37be well less likely to be less likely to

17:40be selected as mates and also perhaps

17:42more likely to be severely punished from

17:45time to time now you might say well how

17:47do people get away with not being

17:49conscientious then well the answer to

17:51that would be there are other things

17:53that you can offer the community that

17:55are of value that aren't associated with

17:58dud beautifulness and I think comedians

18:00are a good example of that I I don't

18:02believe that comedians are particularly

18:04conscientious because it's not the kind

18:05of Lifestyle you would pick if you were

18:06a conscientious person or people who go

18:09out on the road and play music for

18:10example because that's such an erratic

18:13lifestyle and so unlikely to be stable

18:15across any reasonable amount of time so

18:17maybe you could be valuable to the

18:19community by being amusing an extrovert

18:21would do that or or by uh by helping

18:25ensure security and safety and maybe

18:28someone h neuroticism would do that or

18:30maybe you would be useful because you're

18:32really good at developing affiliative

18:34relationships that would be someone who

18:35is agreeable or you're creative but the

18:38conscientious person demonstrates their

18:40value by working hard and being dutiful

18:42and contributing to the broader

18:43community and and following rules and

18:46all that sort of thing and there may be

18:47other things they do as well so now

18:50here's a downside to being

18:52conscientious if

18:54you're working in a big company say and

18:57there's Mass layoffs and you happen to

18:58be affected independently of your work

19:00history the probability that you'll

19:02become depressed is quite a lot higher

19:04if you're conscientious and some of you

19:06maybe conscientious people and you know

19:08that if you fail at something or even if

19:10you think you might be failing at

19:11something you're going to tear yourself

19:13apart you're going to find it you're

19:15going to blame yourself for it because

19:16conscientious people especially orderly

19:18people are also judgmental right and so

19:22which is something the Liberals always

19:23accuse the conservatives of doing is

19:25being judgmental and and laying down

19:27their value structure on everything but

19:29if you're conscientious you're going to

19:30tend to assume that if things aren't

19:32going well for you that it's your fault

19:35and that's you can understand why that

19:37might be a useful supposition when it is

19:40the case that there's something you

19:41could have done that would have

19:43stabilized you or or improved your your

19:45chances and you can often think of

19:48something even if it's trivial but it's

19:49not so good when you happen to be caught

19:51up in you know waves of mass movement

19:54for example when you're laid off by a

19:56big company that where the relationship

19:58between that happening and your own work

20:00ethic is very very tenuous nonetheless

20:03you'll still pull yourself apart

20:08so all right so let's take a look at

20:11orderliness because we don't have much

20:13to say about industriousness because we

20:14don't know anything about

20:15industriousness but we're starting to

20:17understand a lot about orderliness and

20:18it's extremely interesting so we we'd

20:21only managed to parse out orderliness

20:23roughly speaking only managed to parse

20:26out conscientiousness into orderliness

20:28and industriousness over about the last

20:3010 years I mean people have had placed

20:32orderliness under conscientiousness

20:34before that but psychometrically it's

20:36become with the big five aspect scale

20:38it's become more straightforward to

20:39measure and so here's what we know about

20:42orderliness so far it predicts

20:45conservatism along with low openness low

20:47openness is a better predictor of

20:49conservatism and high openness of

20:51liberalism than conscientiousness is but

20:54conscientiousness is a pretty good

20:55predictor and that's almost all

20:57orderliness it's it's also associated

20:59with disgusted sensitivity now that's a

21:02very cool thing so um Jonathan height

21:05has done a lot of work on discussed

21:06sensitivity and so has a guy named Paul

21:08Rosen and I knew their research from

21:10really almost I guess it's almost 30

21:12years ago now and I thought they were

21:13really on to something back in the 990s

21:15I really thought that investigating

21:17disgust would be useful because no one

21:18had ever really talked about it hadn't

21:20conceptualized it as a separate emotion

21:22system and we we found that that

21:26discussed sensitivity is associated with

21:28orderliness with the preference for

21:30order and tradition and not with

21:32egalitarianism it's also associated

21:34orderliness with harsh judgments of

21:35moral transgression and and this is the

21:38kicker here I think it's associated with

21:40the function of something that

21:41psychologists have started to describe

21:43as the behavioral immune system and so

21:45we're going to talk about the behavioral

21:47immune system and then we're going to

21:48talk more speculatively I would say

21:51about the role that the behavioral

21:53immune system might play in political

21:55choice and also in political pathology

21:57and I find this overwhelmingly shocking

22:00this this body of data because it's

22:02opened up a view for me of why people

22:06are prejudice that I had no idea existed

22:08and it's it's make it actually makes

22:10Prejudice a more terrifying thing I was

22:12terrified about Prejudice before I knew

22:14any of the stuff I'm going to tell you

22:15about today but this makes it more

22:17terrifying because it it locks it so

22:19deeply into people you can't believe it

22:21and the worse than that if you

22:24understand why it's locked so deeply

22:25into people you also understand why it

22:29emerged as a necessity and that's the

22:31terrifying thing now so we're stuck with

22:33that now and no one really knows what to

22:35do about it and so well we'll walk

22:37through this and you can tell me what

22:38you think so what's the behavioral

22:40immune

22:41system all right according to the

22:44parasite stress hypothesis levels of

22:48parasitic infection within a region may

22:51drive variability at both individual and

22:53societal levels okay so they're talking

22:55about individual variability in

22:57political attitudes in personality

23:00traits both among individuals and both

23:02in the social world and so we'll outline

23:05that in some great detail the avoidance

23:08of death or disability through avoidance

23:11of infection is a major evolutionary

23:13driving force for example until times

23:16that are recent in evolutionary terms

23:18almost 50% of children failed to survive

23:21to reproductive age with the majority of

23:23deaths being due to infectious diseases

23:26now we're less cognizant of that as

23:29modern people because of the invention

23:31of

23:33antibiotics which we are currently in

23:35the process of destroying as rapidly as

23:38we possibly can right because they're

23:40given wide scale to animals and to

23:44people to far too great a degree and all

23:46over the world we're generating new

23:48infectious diseases that are resistant

23:50to antibiotics all known antibiotics and

23:53we don't have any new antibiotics in the

23:55pipeline so although we've had a 60 70

23:58year Hiatus where infectious diseases

24:00were well controlled they're they're

24:03back on the March again and for example

24:05there are multiple strains that have

24:07emerged of antibiotic resistant

24:09tuberculosis that can't be treated by

24:11any known combination of antibiotics and

24:13those are actually tend this is a

24:15terrible thing they tend to be bred in

24:16hospitals and my guess is if we did the

24:19epidemiology properly that hospitals

24:21kill more people than they save and the

24:23reason they do that is because they

24:24bring people together who have diseases

24:27and they breed infectious disease of all

24:29sorts that's antibiotic resistant it's

24:31absolutely insane and here's another

24:33thing we do that's completely crazy so

24:36um if you bring cattle to a feed lot

24:39they're fed this is particularly the

24:41case in in the US but it's also the case

24:43in Ontario um they're fattened up on

24:46corn and the reason they're fattened up

24:49on corn is because corn is heavily

24:50subsidized as a as a crop so it's Dam

24:53near free that's why there's corn syrup

24:54in everything right because it's a very

24:56lowcost a very lowcost source of

24:58calories and you might say well hooray

25:00you know a lowcost source of calories

25:02isn't that wonderful because that means

25:04that people don't have who have any who

25:05don't have any money get to eat and

25:07right fair enough but the subsidy is

25:09made corn so cheap that you can you can

25:11feed it to cows to fatten them up

25:13because they get quite fat fast they

25:14gain a lot of weight fast with corn the

25:16problem is cows can't digest corn so it

25:20makes them sick or they digest it very

25:21badly it makes them sick they're not

25:23designed for it they're designed to eat

25:25grass not corn and so in order to stop

25:27the cows from from dying when you feed

25:29them corn you pump them full of

25:31antibiotics and that's one of the things

25:32that's breeding antibiotic resistance so

25:35it's not very smart but that's what

25:37we're doing and no one really notices

25:39and that's a very bad idea so you can be

25:42sure one of the things that you can be

25:44virtually certain of is that whatever

25:45you're worried about happening terribly

25:47in the future it will be something else

25:49that you're not worrying about that will

25:51actually cause the problem and this

25:52could certainly be one of those things

25:55local parasite types and host defense

25:57systems will typically typically be

25:59involved in a co-evolutionary arms race

26:02and so at any given time a host's

26:04immunological defenses will be

26:06specialized to be most effective against

26:08local parasite species to the extent

26:11that a host defense system is

26:12specialized locally contact without

26:15groups will be associated with an

26:17increased risk of exposure to infectious

26:20diseases against which there is no a

26:22prior immunity okay I'm going to read

26:24that again because you should think

26:26about it to the extent that a host

26:29defense system is specialized locally

26:32contact without groups will be

26:33associated with an increased risk of

26:35exposure to infectious diseases against

26:37which there is no a prior immunity black

26:41plague Europe came in on ships right the

26:43Europeans started to spread out they

26:45came back with the ships the rats came

26:46off the ships poof third of the European

26:49population

26:50died the relevant infection avoiding

26:53behaviors such as avoidance of strangers

26:56and high conscientiousness in for

26:59example food preparation are assumed to

27:01arise from the operation of a behavioral

27:03immune system the behavioral immune

27:05system comprises adaptive psychological

27:08response mechanisms that are sensitive

27:10to cues that might predict the presence

27:12of infectious pathogens and which

27:14respond with appropriate cognitive

27:16processing and affective reactions such

27:19a system this is the next thing that you

27:21want to pay attention to such a system

27:24is likely to be over sensitive the cost

27:27of a false positive avoiding

27:29non-existent infection is small relative

27:31to the possible cost catching an

27:33avoidable infection okay so you're

27:35walking through the grass and your snake

27:37detectors go off they're they're the the

27:39F or the paraphobia of your eyes the per

27:42periphery is specialized for the

27:44detection of things that might threaten

27:46you and so you could say well your snake

27:49you have snake detection systems in the

27:50periphery of your vision that are hypers

27:52sensitive because if you see a stick and

27:54you think snake and you jump up in the

27:56air the cost is you jumped up in the air

27:59so who cares that you misidentified the

28:01snake but if there's a snake there and

28:03you don't see it and it bites you then

28:04you're dead so the logic is why not set

28:07the systems that protect you to be hyper

28:09sensitive because the cost of the hypers

28:11sensitivity is low compared to the cost

28:13of hyposensitivity right in Social

28:17terms an important component of the

28:20parasite stress hypothesis is that high

28:23levels of infection may lead to

28:26ethnocentrism xenophobia Trust of

28:28different others and Conformity because

28:31such behaviors will reduce the

28:32likelihood of exposure to unfamiliar

28:34infections to which immunity has not

28:36been developed why is there strict

28:38sexual morality because promiscuity is a

28:41prime vector for disease transmission

28:44that's one of the

28:47reasons conservatism as the social

28:49immune system discusted is considered to

28:52be one of the basic human emotions

28:54defined by a strong revulsion and desire

28:57to withdraw from an eliciting stimulus

28:59or event physically disgust is

29:02accompanied by a distinct facial

29:03expression involved con involving

29:05constriction of the oral and na nasal

29:07cavity so that's the disgust phase which

29:09closes up your nose and your mouth so

29:11that things can't get in evolutionary

29:13models of disussed propose that this

29:15emotion evolv to help us avoid

29:16contaminated or harmful foods or other

29:19potential sources of disease such as

29:21sexual contact you know there's lots of

29:23psychoanalytic theories about sexual

29:25shame and sexual disgust but it's much

29:28more straightforward as far as I'm

29:29concerned to view it as a biological

29:32battle there's approach systems and

29:34sexual arousal systems that are involved

29:36in moving you forward to towards a

29:38sexual partner but there's disgust

29:40systems that guard you against it and

29:42those two things are mutually Regulatory

29:44and so you're basically Stuck in the

29:45Middle it's half move forward and half

29:48be repelled and that's partly also the

29:50balance of those two things is help is

29:52what helps you select a sexual partner

29:54and people generally are quite selective

29:56about their sexual partner

29:58so and we said well why are you

30:01selective about your sexual partners

30:03well there's the obvious practical

30:04reasons but then there's the reasons

30:06that are more more tightly associated

30:09with biological protection and so even

30:12though we don't like to think that

30:14way in addition to its role in directly

30:18helping to expel harmful foods from the

30:20body discust also forms an important

30:22component of the behavioral immune

30:24system the suite of psychological

30:27mechanisms that Aid in the detection and

30:29avoidance of potential contaminants

30:31before they can make contact with the

30:32body although disgust may have its

30:34origins in the protection to get

30:36physical contamination a number of

30:37Studies have implicated disgust

30:39responses in moral decision-making

30:41there's been experiments that are

30:43specifically associated with the

30:45elicitation of disgust and the

30:47observation of the corresponding

30:48behaviors in the lab so here here's an

30:50example so imagine I gave you a

30:51sterilized Beaker and I said well expel

30:54some saliva into it now wait 10 seconds

30:56and drink it with you well people no you

30:59see you made a disgust face right well

31:01the question is why right you know it's

31:04sterile it was in your mouth seconds

31:06before why all of a sudden have have

31:08you've switched from it being part of

31:10your body to not being part of your body

31:12and also being part of your body that

31:14what wasn't ingested it was was part of

31:16you to being something that there's no

31:18damn way you're going to have anything

31:19to do with so

31:21um well so that's a good example that's

31:23a good example of the of the of the

31:25discussed mechanism in in operation you

31:28know distinguishing between self and

31:30non-self is a very very difficult thing

31:32and there's multiple mechanisms that do

31:33it and it's it's definitely necessary

31:36although disgust may have its origins in

31:38protection against physical

31:39contamination a number of Studies have

31:41implicated disgust response disgust

31:44responses in moral decision-making I

31:46mean you know that you you can see the

31:48activity of the uh behavioral immune

31:51system in such simple things as avoiding

31:54sources of contamination on a sidewalk

31:56right if you see something that's

31:58disgusting say rotting food or something

32:00like that on a sidewalk the probability

32:02that you're going to step in it is very

32:03low you're going to see it and you're

32:05going to make a face and you're going to

32:06go around it and the reason for that is

32:08because you don't want that attached to

32:10you in any way and the reason for that

32:12is well it's disgusting it's

32:13contaminating and the association there

32:16is that it's the a place where you could

32:18conceivably pick up a disease now you

32:20see pathologies of this system arise

32:24generally obsessive compulsive disorders

32:26so chronic handh for example is is

32:29classified as an anxiety disorder but

32:31there is an anxiety component to it but

32:33I don't believe that that's an accurate

32:35classification I think that obsessive

32:36compulsive disorder is actually a

32:38disorder of disgust because all of the

32:40behaviors including hyper grooming

32:42people sometimes have trania they'll

32:44pull out the hairs on their body The

32:46Grooming behaviors and that sort of

32:48thing seem to be more associated with

32:49the operation of the disgust system and

32:51almost everything about obsessive

32:54compulsive disorder has a discussed

32:56basis and so one of the things things

32:58that people who are who have OCD obsess

33:01about is that I got a client once who

33:03was this poor woman by the time her OCD

33:06was done with her she' built the

33:07equivalent of an airlock on her house

33:09like not technically proficient or

33:11anything like that and her husband and

33:12her children had to go through an

33:14elaborate decontamination process before

33:16they were allowed to step foot in the

33:17house and one of the things she was very

33:19concerned about was that she would go

33:20out to a supermarket and touch a piece

33:23of fruit and and become contaminated and

33:25then come home and touch her children

33:27and then they would become contaminated

33:28and so well she ended up in the in the

33:30hospital and she was divorced and I I

33:32just did in her life you know and so and

33:35people who have obsessive compulsive

33:36disorder you know they'll they'll wash

33:38their hands until the soap is gone like

33:40a whole bar of soap right and you can

33:42often tell who they are because their

33:44hands are shiny from washing too much

33:45and they'll shower they can't get out of

33:47the shower they'll shower until the hot

33:49water is completely gone and you know so

33:51the their their self-cleaning mechanisms

33:53so to speak have gone seriously astray

33:55and the way you treat them is by

33:57exposing them to things that are

33:59disgusting and contaminating um I had a

34:03client with OCD once he was quite the

34:05character and um I one of the things I

34:08had him do was we would look for things

34:10on the internet pictures of things that

34:11really disgusted him it's not that much

34:13fun by the way treating someone who has

34:15OCD because I'm rather disgust sensitive

34:17and and so that was also rather hard on

34:19me so anyways we would look for things

34:21on the internet that that he really

34:23didn't like and then I'd print them out

34:24and have them put them on his fridge

34:26which he did not like at at all and he

34:29would he would he had a bunch of other

34:31problems and we got along quite well but

34:33for a long time I treated him for about

34:343 years he would phone me like three or

34:37four times a day because he had

34:38obsessive compulsive disorder and just

34:40swear at me like mad you know he just

34:42swear I didn't get these messages he he

34:45he'd phone me and he was just so mad at

34:47me because I'd have him put these things

34:48on his fridge you know and so he'd curse

34:51and swear and yell at me and then 2

34:53minutes later he would phone and

34:54apologize and say he was really sorry

34:56and hoped I would continue to see him

34:58God that just went that just went on

35:00forever but I felt sorry for the poor

35:02guy you know he eventually ended up

35:04getting a puppy um yeah yeah yeah see

35:07you agreeable people oh a

35:09puppy God unbelievable eh yeah anyways

35:14that was good for him because he had to

35:15go around and clean up after the puppy

35:17but that that poor puppy it was quite

35:19dominant and it oh the things that

35:21happened to that poor guy so the puppy

35:24would dominate him so he'd take it

35:25outside to to take for a walk and he

35:28wasn't a very skilled person in many

35:30many ways um he had a very large number

35:33of severe impediments and so but he

35:35really liked this pupp he didn't have

35:36any friends or anything like that and he

35:38was supported by his aged mother and it

35:41God it was just a catastrophe and he'd

35:45go outside and try to walk the puppy and

35:46the puppy would just sit down right

35:48because it was doing dominant stuff and

35:49he didn't know how to overcome it and

35:51then these crazy people from across the

35:53way who styled themselves as animal

35:55rights activists started to harass him

35:57he and they phoned up his mother and

35:59told him that if they if if she didn't

36:00take the dog away from that they

36:02were going to come over and you know do

36:04terrible things to him and then he got

36:05harassed on the street and then he went

36:07to a park with his dog and they came up

36:10to him and pushed him on the car and

36:12swiped his dog and ran off to the to the

36:14SPCA and dumped it there and he had to

36:17move away from his apartment and God it

36:19was just it was just an absolute

36:21catastrophe they had plenty of sympathy

36:23for that damn dog but no sympathy

36:25whatsoever for the guy you know it was

36:27really it was really something anyways

36:29the story ended happily weirdly enough

36:32he got a he got a job with a woman who

36:36used to be a psychiatric nurse who was

36:37training dogs and she gave him a little

36:40job setting up the dog training thing

36:42and then he got to learn to train his

36:44dog he lost like he was a thin guy to

36:46begin with he lost like 30 lbs trying to

36:48learn how to take care of this puppy it

36:49was just I thought he was going to die

36:51but there's no way he was going to give

36:53up that dog and so anyways OCD it's

36:57quite the bloody uh catastrophe so and

37:01it's a good thing for someone who has

37:02OCD to have a dog right because dogs are

37:04messy and so there's all sorts of things

37:07that are messy about them but you have

37:08to kind of live with the mess like you

37:10have to live with the mess if you're

37:11going to have a child or if you're going

37:12to have a partner of any sort you know

37:14you can't let the orderliness part of

37:17you get the upper hand so terribly that

37:20it's impossible for you to live that's

37:21what happens to girls who have anorexia

37:24by the way you know how you get there's

37:26this idea with regards to anorexia that

37:28it's often High achieving girls who have

37:30it well it's hyper conscientious girls

37:32they get so disgust sensitive they can't

37:34stand their own bodies and so for

37:36example then they start being able to

37:38look at their bodies properly and so

37:39what they do instead of looking at their

37:41whole body they they lose the ability to

37:43do that they only can see parts of their

37:45body and then they can't tell the

37:47difference between a part that's healthy

37:49and well-shaped and a fat part and so

37:51anything that's that's that's what would

37:53you call of dubious

37:57anything that's hard to measure becomes

37:59impossible to see so I had an anorexic

38:01client at one point wasn't a very big

38:03woman maybe about this big and and thin

38:06yes obviously and so I was trying to

38:08work with her on her body perception

38:10disorder and one of the things I did was

38:12so I had her come and sit beside me so I

38:15was sitting like this and so was she and

38:17I said well you look at our two thighs

38:19which one is bigger and like mine was

38:20like 40% bigger and she said well I

38:23can't tell they look the same to me and

38:25so I said okay this is what we're going

38:26to do I let her do it I said you take a

38:29pencil and I'll sit on a piece of paper

38:31and you just trace my thigh okay and

38:33then you can put that piece of paper

38:35underneath your thigh and trace it and

38:37then you can look at the difference well

38:38so I had her do that and she looked at

38:40the two pieces of paper and she couldn't

38:42believe it she could not believe that

38:45that was actually the case because her

38:47perception had become so disordered that

38:49it was impossible for her to see the

38:51real shape of her body and we we would

38:53go outside and I would ask her you know

38:55is that person thin is that person fat

38:57and with other people she could tell but

38:59with her own body not a chance she

39:01couldn't see it properly at all and so

39:03there's a real obsession with Purity

39:05among women who have anorexia no they'd

39:07like to starve themselves right down to

39:09the bone because the bone is sort of

39:11pure and white and there's no excess

39:13tissue on it and so anorexia also looks

39:16like a disease of disgust and so it's

39:18very very difficult to she she thought

39:20in very black and white terms one of the

39:22things I I had her do at one point was

39:24said she has a music she said I really

39:27like a song or I don't like it at all

39:29and I said okay well you've got a music

39:31collection why don't you go through like

39:3320 of those songs and rate them on a

39:34scale from one to 10 and she couldn't do

39:37it it was either yes or no orderly right

39:40the boundaries around the categories

39:42were absolutely segregated and and her

39:44apartment tended to be decorated in

39:47black and white and she was hyper clean

39:49you know so everything in the apartment

39:50was extraordinarily orderly well put

39:52away she couldn't stand to see anything

39:54disgusting on the counters and that sort

39:55of thing so very very difficult disorder

39:58to treat anorexia very very difficult so

40:02and you know you can see how it can go

40:04wrong

40:05because food you know when you're eating

40:08your disgust systems are on alert you

40:10know like you you want the thing you

40:12want to eat and you absolutely don't

40:14want the thing you don't want to eat and

40:15your mouth is very sensitive to that

40:17sort of thing you know to the texture

40:19and all of that and your sense of smell

40:20is very sensitive to that sort of thing

40:22because you know you don't want to eat

40:23anything that's contaminated or

40:25poisonous so it's another situation like

40:26sex where the reward system is driving

40:29you forward for to to engage in a

40:32consumatory behavior but the discusted

40:34system is right there Mo modulating and

40:37moderating it and there's a tension

40:38between those two things that's already

40:40always at work with the anorexic types

40:42the discuss sense discust system gets

40:44the upper hand so she was also

40:46extraordinarily judgmental and

40:48perfectionistic but that goes along with

40:50it because orderly people are judgmental

40:52and perfectionistic and so if you're

40:54you're a perfectionist often what that

40:56means is you have very high levels of

40:58orderliness and very high levels of

41:00neuroticism and those two things Chase

41:02each other around like mad because you

41:04can't stand the idea that you would make

41:05a mistake and you get anxious about it

41:07as well so then you get stuck in this

41:09perfectionistic mindset and you can't

41:11get out of it

41:13so inducing disgust responses whether

41:16via a foul order a disgusting work

41:18environment or recalling a disgusting

41:21experience LED individuals to assign

41:23harsher punishments to others who had

41:25committed moral trans transgression so

41:28you you describe a moral transgression

41:31maybe breaking a law you expose person

41:34the the people in the experiment to some

41:35disgusting stimulus and then you have

41:37them you ask them about the probability

41:40that the person was guilty and then also

41:42how long they should be imprisoned or

41:43how much they should be fined and if you

41:45get the people disgusted then the

41:47probability especially if they're

41:48orderly then the probability of of

41:50assigning a harsh punishment goes upward

41:53so so if you're ever in court don't

41:55discuss the judge right that's part of

41:57the deal harsher moral consump judgments

42:00can even be induced following the

42:02consumption of a bitter drink because

42:04bitter bitter substances are often

42:07poison or poisonous substances are often

42:09bitter and that induces a disgust

42:11response as well although you can

42:13overcome that coffee is bitter olives

42:15are bitter so you can you can retrain

42:18your system to accept those things as

42:19food but it's not particularly

42:22easy in in addition the same discussed

42:24related facial expressions are observed

42:26in resp response to unpleasant tastes

42:28disgusting photographs and receiving

42:31unfair treatment in an economic

42:34game concerns about cleanliness and

42:37interesting so some of you may know I

42:39was at McMaster University a couple of

42:40weeks ago and there were a bunch of

42:42protesters there and I went up to to

42:44meet the protesters because I kind of

42:45wanted to see what would happen there

42:46were a bunch of them around the end the

42:48back of the room and I offered to shake

42:49their hands and mostly what I got was

42:51disgust faces you know and that's not

42:53good that's not good so here's something

42:55to know too here's here's a good

42:57predictor of whether or not you're going

42:59to get divorced you go into the

43:01therapist office and you talk the two of

43:03you talk and you roll your eyes that'll

43:06predict if you roll if you're rolling

43:07your eyes at your partner you're going

43:09to divorce them why it's a disgust

43:11response right it's something like I'm

43:13lifting you up with my eyes and throwing

43:15you into the garbage it's something like

43:17that but eye rolling is a great

43:18predictor of the probability of divorce

43:20so so it's something to keep in mind

43:22with regards to your relationships like

43:23if you're starting to develop some

43:25contempt or some disgust

43:27you bloody well better get on that right

43:29away because that's a bad road to go

43:31down and so well

43:34so well so then you have to do whatever

43:36you have to do not to go down that

43:41road yeah so see one of the things I

43:44think that's happening on the political

43:46landscape and like we know for example

43:48that the more authoritarian politically

43:50correct types are high in agreeableness

43:52and high in orderliness so that's a very

43:54interesting combination and I think

43:55what's happening is that they're very

43:57rapidly dividing the world into

43:59contemptible Predator like a snakes

44:01often elicit a disgust response right a

44:04predator will will elicit a disgust

44:05response like a crocodile or an

44:07alligator a snake or something like that

44:09and so it's the it's the Predator

44:11response that's being evoked to the

44:13people who are on the other side of the

44:14political Spectrum roughly speaking and

44:16so they're categorized as like contempt

44:19Predators something like that and the

44:20people that are being protected are like

44:22innocent victims it's it's that's how it

44:24appears and that's a very very dangerous

44:27to have happen as I'll show you concerns

44:29about cleanliness and feelings of

44:30disgust have likewise been related to

44:33political attitudes situational

44:35reminders of the importance of physical

44:37cleanliness such as asking participants

44:39to wipe their hands with antiseptic

44:41wipes tend to increase self-reported

44:43political conservatism such as find

44:46finding is consistent with the notion

44:48that Purity tends to be valued more

44:50highly by conservatives than by liberals

44:53individuals who report being disgusted

44:56more easily also tend to hold more

44:58conservative political views on topics

44:59including abortion gay marriage tax cuts

45:01and affirmative action in addition to

45:04the effects that have emerged when using

45:05self-reported disgust sensitivity more

45:07conservative political views have also

45:09been associated with stronger

45:10physiological reactivity to disgusting

45:13images there's a lawyer Martha nusom

45:15who's also a political philosopher who

45:17says that we should eliminate the effect

45:20of disgust on our political theorizing

45:22that disgust shouldn't be something

45:24that's considered as a valid means of

45:28information from which you might drive

45:31derive political conclusions so if I

45:33find your behavior disgusting or if you

45:35find my behavior disgusting according to

45:37NAS bom that should be independent you

45:39should try to make that rationally

45:41independent of your political views I'd

45:43like to believe that but there's a

45:44problem and this is the problem that

45:46we're going to go through you can't mock

45:47about with these underlying systems you

45:49can't just say ignore the reports of

45:52your discust system because it isn't it

45:55isn't like your emotions are insane and

45:57irrational and you have the rationality

45:59on top of that that's guiding you

46:01properly that isn't how it works all of

46:03these underlying biological systems

46:04guide you and to the degree that you're

46:07the degree to which you're guided

46:08properly is a consequence of the balance

46:11of the action of these underlying

46:13biological systems but the balance is

46:14very complexly maintained you need a

46:17discusted system because if you didn't

46:18you'd eat something that would kill you

46:20and then you would die or you'd do

46:22something stupid and you'd end up like

46:24you you'd get cut and it would be dirty

46:25and you wouldn't clean it and then you

46:27would die so the idea that you can

46:29somehow just rationalize the output of

46:31the discussed system and decontaminate

46:34your political viewpoints as a

46:36consequence seems to me to be un it

46:38seems to me to be very very naive not

46:40that there's no danger to it because

46:42there's plenty of danger to it in

46:44addition a large literature has

46:46converged on the notion that there are

46:48two core dimensions of conservative

46:50political ideology resistance to change

46:53and tolerance of

46:54inequality resistance to change refs the

46:57extent to which people wish to maintain

46:58the status quo while tolerance of

47:00inequality reflects the acceptance of an

47:02unequal distribution of resources and

47:04opportunities within Society Jo has done

47:07a lot of that work

47:09Jo's supervisor is maerin banaji and Ma

47:12maerin banaji is a known Marxist and so

47:15this is another place where political

47:17ideology contaminates as far as I'm

47:19concerned scientific inquiry because

47:22Jo's work on on uh on let's say

47:26resistance to

47:27is predicated on the idea that the

47:29conservative in the conservative

47:32inclination to support the maintenance

47:34of already existing structures is

47:37precisely equivalent to supporting an

47:39unjust system and that's not a

47:41reasonable thing to do if you're looking

47:43at these sorts of things from a

47:44scientific perspective you don't get to

47:46make judgments like that but they're

47:47built into the

47:49questionnaires so resistance to change

47:51reflects the extent to which people wish

47:53to maintain the status quo while

47:55tolerance of inequality reflect reflects

47:57the acceptance of an unequal

47:58distribution of resources and

47:59opportunities within Society these two

48:02Dimensions appear roughly aligned with

48:04social and economic conservatism as

48:06expressed in the constructs of

48:07right-wing authoritarianism and social

48:09dominance orientation respectively there

48:11is no left-wing authoritarian

48:13psychological scales we're trying to

48:15derive one right now but the reason for

48:17that is that after World War II the

48:20social science Community was responding

48:22to what had happened in Nazi Germany and

48:24perfectly appropriately and they

48:26examined rightwing authoritarianism as a

48:28consequence but they never examined

48:30left-wing authoritarianism because the

48:32prevailing what would you call it

48:34political landscape of the time

48:37prescribed made the idea that there

48:39could be left-wing authoritarianism

48:42sufficiently incorrect politically so

48:44that it was never analyzed from the

48:45perspective of social science even

48:47though the evidence for left-wing

48:49authoritarianism say by the end of the

48:501940s was absolutely overwhelming right

48:54by the 1930s people were reporting on

48:56what had happened in the Soviet Union

48:58you know the forced the forced

49:00dekulakization for example of the

49:03agricultural industry in the Soviet

49:05Union and the consequence death

49:06consequent deaths of several million

49:08people in the Ukraine was all

49:09extraordinarily well

49:11documented these core facets of

49:13conservatism are also closely related to

49:15the two higher order value dimensions

49:17described in moral foundations Theory

49:19which reflect preferences for order and

49:21tradition on the one hand and

49:23preferences for egalitarianism on the

49:25other important ly the motivational

49:28basis of these two Dimensions appears to

49:30vary independently from one another with

49:32an individual's overall political

49:33attitudes on a left right Spectrum

49:35emerging from their relative

49:37balance these motives are also strongly

49:40Ro rooted rooted in basic personality

49:42characteristics such that preferences

49:44for order and tradition are associated

49:46with higher levels of orderliness now

49:48you might think that's obvious right

49:49well obviously orderliness is associated

49:52with preference for order that's not the

49:54issue the issue is whether or not you

49:57can measure it right that's the issue so

49:59these things seem self-evident but it's

50:01taken a very long time to build up the

50:03instruments that allow them to be

50:04measured in such a way that you can also

50:06start to look at the correlates and the

50:08underlying

50:09psychophysiology so it's it's by no

50:11means

50:13obvious um higher levels of orderliness

50:16an aspect of conscientiousness and

50:18politeness an aspect of agreeableness as

50:20well as lower levels of openness and

50:22intellect in contrast preferences for

50:24egalitarianism are uniquely associated

50:26with compassion an aspect of

50:28agreeableness so and that's exactly what

50:30we found when when we were looking at

50:32political correctness which is primarily

50:34predicted not by openness or by

50:36conscientiousness but by

50:37agreeableness political conservatism can

50:40therefore be thought of as a social

50:42immune system reflecting the extension

50:45of pathogen avoidance mechanisms to the

50:47Integrity of the social system borders

50:49boundaries right that's the orderly

50:51person we'll keep borders between

50:53Concepts we'll keep borders between

50:55people we'll keep borders between

50:56between towns will keep borders between

50:58political ideas and religions and States

51:01why because we don't want the Terrible

51:04Things flooding in from everywhere now

51:06the liberal will say wait a minute all

51:07the things flooding in from everywhere

51:09aren't terrible they have great utility

51:11and that's true but the problem is

51:13they're both true they're both true at

51:15the same time because well and and we'll

51:18document that as we move forward so then

51:20the question is well how do you know

51:21when things should be more open and when

51:23things should be more closed and the

51:24answer to that is well you better have a

51:26chat with everyone and find out what

51:28they think because it's a balance of

51:30probabilities there's no way of

51:31determining at a priority it's a balance

51:33of probabilities and so you have to have

51:35a discussion to determine how wide the

51:38gates should be open and how narrow they

51:39should be closed and that's also going

51:41to depend on the circumstances and the

51:43situation so there's no way of the thing

51:45this is the thing that's so terrible

51:47about this there's no way of determining

51:49a prior whose position is

51:52correct just as the behavioral yes in

51:55particular the social immune system

51:56system would help to maintain order by

51:58suppressing any actions or individuals

52:00that deviate from a group's accepted

52:02social traditions it has been reported

52:04for example that regions with higher

52:06levels of disease prevalence tend to be

52:08associated with higher levels of social

52:10Conformity and autocratic rule

52:13individuals who feel more vulnerable to

52:15disease likely likewise report higher

52:17levels of ethnocentrism and xenophobia

52:20such basic concerns about pathogen

52:22avoidance May thus contribute to the

52:24desire for order and tradition among

52:25conservatives along along with the harsh

52:27moral judgments associated with

52:28violations of the social order how do

52:30you purify something how about with fire

52:34that's something to keep in mind as we

52:35move towards the more political

52:36expressions of this and the thing about

52:39something that's disgusting is you don't

52:41isolate it exactly you destroy it right

52:44you it's the thing you do with rats and

52:46insects for example is destroy them

52:49right and you do that with poison you do

52:50it with fire you do it by cleaning

52:52things up and you do that because well

52:54the rats EAD all your crops and the in

52:56carry disease and all of that so or they

52:59infest your food which which you know I

53:00don't know what proportion of today's

53:02food production is eaten by rats and

53:04insects but it's a huge proportion

53:08still according to the parasite stress

53:11hypothesis authoritarian governments are

53:14more likely to emerge in regions

53:16characterized by a high prevalence of

53:18disease causing pathogens now who the

53:20hell would have ever guessed that this

53:22is where you see the real utility of a

53:24genuine social science because it's by

53:26no means self-evident this hypothesis

53:28and this paper that I'm going to discuss

53:30with you right now just blew me away

53:32when I read it I thought it should have

53:33been Front Page News across across the

53:35world but didn't really attract that

53:37much attention recent cross National

53:39evidence is consistent with this

53:41hypothesis but there are inferential

53:42limitations associated with that

53:44evidence we report two studies that

53:46address some of the limitations and

53:47provide further tests of the hypothesis

53:49study one revealed that parasite

53:53prevalence strongly predicted

53:55cross-national differences on measures

53:57assessing individuals authoritarian

53:59personalities so that's very interesting

54:02so the more parasitic and transmissible

54:06diseases in a particular local the

54:08higher the probability that people when

54:10measured at the individual level held

54:13authoritarian attitudes because you

54:14might say well there's parasite

54:16prevalence that produces a repressive

54:18government but it doesn't really affect

54:19people at the level of personality and

54:21that's not what was found in the studies

54:23it was reversed the parasite prevalence

54:26SL infectious diseases made people more

54:28authoritarian and that was what was

54:30driving the more authoritarian

54:31government so here's something cool who

54:33knows about this right so how do you

54:35fight authoritarian governments across

54:37the world you get rid of infectious

54:39disease that could be it that could be

54:42the key so and then again that that is

54:44by no means a self-evident

54:46hypothesis study one that revealed that

54:49parasite prevalence strongly predicted

54:51cross-national differences on measures

54:53assessing individuals authoritarian

54:55personalities and effect statistically

54:57mediated the relationship between

54:58parasite prevalence and authoritarian

55:00governance parasites personality

55:03authoritarian State that's the causal

55:05pathway this mediation result is

55:07inconsistent with alternative

55:08explanations for previous findings to

55:10address further limitations associated

55:12with cross-national comparison study 2

55:14tested the parasite stress hypothesis on

55:17a sample of traditional smallscale

55:19societies results revealed that parasite

55:22pre prevalence predicted measures of

55:24authoritarian governance and did so even

55:26when statistically controlling for other

55:29threats to human welfare one additional

55:31threat famine also uniquely predicted

55:34authoritarianism together these results

55:36further substantiate the parasite stress

55:38hypothesis of authoritarianism and

55:40suggest that societal differences in

55:42authoritarian governance result in part

55:44from cultural differences in individuals

55:46authoritarian personalities here's the

55:49effect sizes so look they're they're

55:52mindboggling so first that's

55:54authoritarian governance One path

55:56prevalence the correlation

55:59is42 42 right there's malnutrition

56:03there's Warfare It's actually negatively

56:05correlated with Warfare famine. 26 so if

56:08you square that that's about 8% of the

56:09variance that's about 16% of the

56:12variance so those are walloping effect

56:16sizes right that effect size is about so

56:19that's 16% the typical effect size for a

56:21personality variable is about 0. 2 to3

56:24so let's say 0.25 so that's about 7% of

56:27the variance that's 16 to 177% of the

56:30variance you almost never see a

56:31correlation of that size so it's a it's

56:34an absolutely remarkable piece of

56:37work and it has all sorts of terrifying

56:40implications so the question is now why

56:42would you have such a powerful immune

56:45system behavioral immune system

56:46discussed system okay so let's look at

56:48some little known facts about the

56:50history of North America I don't know

56:52how many of you guys know this but it's

56:54worth knowing okay so what was the the

56:56pre-colombian population of the Americas

56:58the answer is we don't really have any

57:00idea the estimates vary from 10 million

57:02to 100 million with an emerging

57:04consensus of 50 million well it's

57:06halfway okay we don't know we could be

57:08out by one order of magnitude but a fair

57:10number of people so what happened to all

57:12the Native Americans well that's easy

57:14they all died why because when the

57:17Spaniards came see there was no diseases

57:19in the new world except for maybe

57:21syphilis there's some evidence that

57:23syphilis was

57:24transmitted back to Europe as a

57:26consequence of contact with North North

57:29and South America but there were almost

57:30no diseases in in in in the Americas and

57:34that's partly because there were no big

57:35cities and also because even where there

57:37were not compared to Europe and also

57:40because where there were big cities in

57:42Europe people lived close with animals

57:44and there was lots of movement of

57:45disease pathogens back and forth between

57:47the animals and the human beings and so

57:49lots of Europeans died as a consequence

57:51of that like huge numbers of them

57:52especially from diseases say like small

57:54plocks or or measles or and but the

57:57Europeans built up a whopping immunity

57:59to all these diseases including

58:00influenza and then they came to the

58:02Americas with their diseases and bang it

58:05killed all the Native Americans it

58:06figured 90% of them so here's some of

58:08the statistics what were the diseases

58:11that wiped them out influenza Bubonic

58:13plague small poox measles they even

58:16chickenpox was deadly to the Native

58:18Americans so from 1492 to 1650 there was

58:22a death toll of

58:2490% so you know when the Puritans landed

58:27in the US at Plymouth Rock that was a

58:29long time after the Spaniards had had

58:31landed in in in the more Southern areas

58:34the Indians the Native Americans there

58:36they were desperate to see them because

58:37they didn't have enough people to take

58:39off their crops they didn't have enough

58:40people left imagine nine out of 10

58:42people died that's everyone right you're

58:45done at that point and so there were 20

58:49to 25 to 30 million people in Mexico

58:51before the arrival of a Cortez 50 years

58:53later there were 3 million so and the

58:56Aboriginal population in Canada

58:58estimates this is accepted by the

59:00Canadian government no one really knows

59:01and the estimates do vary substantially

59:03there might have been 500,000 people in

59:05Canada in 1450 and that decreased by 80%

59:09after contact with the Europeans there's

59:12the population collapse in Mexico 16th

59:14century population collapse in

59:17Mexico so the 1545 and 1576 epidemics

59:21appear to have been hemorrhagic fevers

59:23caused by an indigenous viral agent and

59:26aggravated by unusual climatic

59:27conditions the Mexican population did

59:29not recover recover to prehispanic

59:31levels until the 20th century absolutely

59:34catastrophic consequences so then you

59:36look at that and you think well is it

59:39really all that surprising that people

59:40have evolved extraordinarily powerful

59:43immune systems disgust responses and

59:45behavioral immune systems I mean this is

59:47no joke it's absolutely catastrophic so

59:52now I want to talk to you a little bit

59:53about Hitler so when I was

59:56sorting some of this stuff out trying to

59:59look at the this discust sensitivity

1:00:01literature and then understanding

1:00:03finally that it was associated with

1:00:04orderliness and that orderliness was

1:00:06associated with conservatism I was also

1:00:08reading a book by Adolf Hitler which was

1:00:10called Hitler's tabl talk it's a very

1:00:12interesting book and Hitler had the

1:00:15secretaries at his dinner tables from

1:00:171939 to 1942 and they basically took

1:00:20shorthand notes of what he said

1:00:21spontaneously and so there's a book that

1:00:23you can buy called Hitler's table talk

1:00:25that that that is nothing but a

1:00:27presentation of his spontaneous

1:00:29utterances across that time period now

1:00:31Hitler was a very strange person um he

1:00:33was very high in openness surprisingly

1:00:35enough but also extremely high in

1:00:37orderliness at least that's that's what

1:00:38you can infer from reading the

1:00:40historical data so he bathed four times

1:00:42a day for example he was also a great

1:00:44admir of willpower so which is something

1:00:46that's also associated with

1:00:47conscientiousness and orderliness so he

1:00:49was very proud of his ability to stand

1:00:51like this for eight hours in the back of

1:00:52a car and his ability to withstand you

1:00:55know what would you call them trying

1:00:57circumstances by willpower alone one of

1:00:59the most famous film documentaries that

1:01:01was made in the Nazi area was called

1:01:03Triumph of the will right Triumph of

1:01:05Willow that was by Len riffin stall I'm

1:01:08not saying that quite right you can look

1:01:09at that on YouTube it's a very

1:01:11interesting film a horrifying film but a

1:01:14very interesting one well if you're

1:01:15wondering about orderliness I mean take

1:01:17a look at that man so that's nberg right

1:01:20that was the biggest rally grounds ever

1:01:21made in human history nurg and Hitler

1:01:23was unbelievably good at spectacle look

1:01:25at how absolutely perfectly ordered that

1:01:27is there's God only knows how many

1:01:29people there several hundred thousand

1:01:31cuz they could all fit on the parade

1:01:32ground at the same time all in

1:01:34absolutely perfect

1:01:36formation orderliness gone out of

1:01:39control it's interesting because people

1:01:41think about Nazism Nazism as a descent

1:01:44into barbarity right but what it looks

1:01:46like is a disease of civilization that's

1:01:48a whole different thing because

1:01:50conscientiousness predicts be predicts

1:01:52success in complex industrial societies

1:01:54and this is actually conscientiousness

1:01:56gone out of control on the orderly end

1:01:58of things and why why well the 20s the

1:02:01the World War I that was plenty chaotic

1:02:03and there was a huge famine after World

1:02:05War I right in Spanish influenza killed

1:02:08more people than the war did and it

1:02:11actually mutated in the trenches because

1:02:13if people are packed close together then

1:02:15viruses or other pathogens can be very

1:02:18deadly because you don't have to live

1:02:19very long to give it to her if people

1:02:21are dispersed then the the virus or the

1:02:24bacteria can't afford to kill you fast

1:02:26because then it dies too and so if you

1:02:28pack people together then you can breed

1:02:30unbelievably virulent forms of pathogens

1:02:32infectious pathogens and that's what

1:02:33happened in World War I packed all the

1:02:35men together in unsanitary conditions

1:02:37poof up came Spanish influenza went all

1:02:39around the world after World War I and

1:02:41killed more people than the war so and

1:02:44after the war after World War I of

1:02:46course Germany descended into utter

1:02:49chaos and so what happens when you

1:02:51descend into chaos and the answer is

1:02:53there's a corresponding call for order

1:02:55and that was answered by the that was

1:02:57answered by Hitler and the national

1:02:58socialists and Hitler was very good at

1:03:00listening to the German population and

1:03:03what they were demanding in the period

1:03:05of chaos was order and so that was

1:03:06exactly what he decided to provide

1:03:09spectacles of order which is exactly

1:03:11what you'd expect from someone who is

1:03:12really high in openness and high in

1:03:14orderliness right spectacles of order

1:03:17and Hitler was also extremely interested

1:03:19in art but he categorized art into like

1:03:22proper hygienic art and improper chaotic

1:03:26art and he often would have art

1:03:29exhibits at the same time of the

1:03:31approved art that he approved of so

1:03:33those were in the official museums let's

1:03:36say and then there would be a

1:03:37corresponding exhibit of degenerate art

1:03:40and that that was art that was

1:03:42associated with movements like

1:03:43expressionism for example which has

1:03:44garish colors and it's very emotionally

1:03:47expressive Hitler sort of preferred kind

1:03:49of eroticized Greco Roman

1:03:52representations of heroic people you

1:03:54know that was the Nazi aesthetic a

1:03:57essentially so there are some more

1:03:58examples of order right look at that

1:04:01everything everything geometric

1:04:03everything regular the border is

1:04:04completely well defined everything here

1:04:06is squares everyone's lined up perfectly

1:04:08everything is uniform right look at

1:04:10there's Pathways between the the rows of

1:04:13people this is again at

1:04:15nurg perfect order along with his plans

1:04:19for the world Capital Germania Albert

1:04:21Spear that was the Nazi architect made

1:04:24the plans for the world's largest

1:04:26stadium which was to be located on the

1:04:27nberg rally grounds derived from the

1:04:29panthic stadium of Athens it would have

1:04:31offered 400,000 seats it was to get the

1:04:35shape of a horseshoe planned Dimensions

1:04:36800 M wide 450 M High 100 met with a

1:04:40building area of 350,000 square meters

1:04:43the laying of the foundation stone was

1:04:45on 9th of July 1937 it was to be

1:04:47finished for the party Congress of

1:04:491945 in 38 the construction began with

1:04:52the excavation it was stopped in 39 but

1:04:54during the whole War the casting pit had

1:04:56to be kept dry from entering groundwater

1:04:58after the war the northern half of the

1:05:00pit filled up with water and is today

1:05:02called Silver sea Silver Lake the

1:05:04southern half was used to deposit the

1:05:05debris of the destroyed downtown

1:05:10nurg that's nberg at night so what

1:05:14Hitler did because he was very good at

1:05:16using fire and light as display as well

1:05:18so those that curtain there so you see

1:05:22there's the nurg buildings that we saw

1:05:24in the last photograph that those are

1:05:26the search lights from the from the Nazi

1:05:27Air Force so they had the marade all the

1:05:29way around the the the grounds there and

1:05:32pointed straight up so that the

1:05:33nighttime rallies were illuminated by a

1:05:37a cube of light very effective um what

1:05:41display artistic display of

1:05:44orderliness now here's where things get

1:05:46seriously ugly so this is a this is a

1:05:50pamphlet from I think 19 yeah

1:05:531944 and the pamphlet is called

1:05:56uh Jew as World parasite so this is

1:05:59something I found on the net I'll share

1:06:00it with you very rare original Late 1944

1:06:03anti-jewish Third Reich pamphlet this

1:06:06varies scarce 6 by 8 and 3/4 20page soft

1:06:09cover booklet by EML rifer and Eric

1:06:11schwarzburg was published 1944 in

1:06:14Frankfurt it was published at a time

1:06:15when a great percentage of the European

1:06:17Jews had already been deported to

1:06:18concentration camps in the East perhaps

1:06:20to justify what had happened to the Jews

1:06:22since the Nazi seizure of power the

1:06:24authors compare the Jews with parasites

1:06:26the most unpleasant forms of life on

1:06:28Earth and that it is only natural and

1:06:30just to fight against them to free

1:06:31Humanity of them for the sake and

1:06:33survival of

1:06:36mankind this is from the pamphlet the

1:06:39people of the world will recognize that

1:06:40Jew is World parasite and there will be

1:06:42a time when there will be one united

1:06:43front of all people against the Jewish

1:06:45World parasite the pamphlet ends and

1:06:47Humanity will be freed from the most

1:06:49severe illness from which it suffered

1:06:50from thousands of years here's what

1:06:52happened in Nazi Germany so when when

1:06:54when Hitler came to power he was very

1:06:56interested in public health campaigns

1:06:58and so he set he he formulated a number

1:07:01of policies including formulating these

1:07:04uh vans that went around screening

1:07:06people for tuberculosis at the same time

1:07:08he announced announced a policy to

1:07:10beautify and purify Germany and so he

1:07:12encouraged the factory owners to clean

1:07:15up the factories to get rid of the rats

1:07:16and the insects and to plant flowers and

1:07:18so forth in front right so it was

1:07:19cleanliness and Beauty they used zeyon b

1:07:22as the agent for for disinfect in the

1:07:26factories zeyon b zeyon b was the gas

1:07:28that was used in the gas Chambers so

1:07:30Hitler started out by getting rid of the

1:07:32rats and the parasites and the insects

1:07:34in Germany along with his Public Health

1:07:36campaign then he moved into the insane

1:07:38asylums and started a euthanasia

1:07:40campaign and then he moved outside into

1:07:42the broader political sphere and started

1:07:43to target the people that he didn't

1:07:45consider pure as parasites capitalizing

1:07:48on the behavioral immune system and

1:07:50people's intrinsic sense of disgust and

1:07:52so I'm going to show you some of the

1:07:53propaganda that did that so that you

1:07:54know how sort of thing

1:07:57works okay so this is from Richard

1:08:00Kingsburg who wrote a book called Hit

1:08:02Hitler's idology embodied metaphor

1:08:04fantasy and history so we've already

1:08:07we've already sort of discussed the idea

1:08:09this is sort of an archetypal idea uh

1:08:11grounded in biology you know that you're

1:08:13you're run in some sense on this

1:08:15underlying biological platform of deeply

1:08:17rooted hypothalamic systems in the melic

1:08:19systems and so forth that that and that

1:08:22you're a a collection of those

1:08:24underlying systems organized at some

1:08:26higher order level while those

1:08:28underlying systems manifest themselves

1:08:30in fantasy so for example if you're

1:08:32hungry you're going to get a fantasy

1:08:34about going to get something to eat and

1:08:35if you're lonely you're going to get a

1:08:36fantasy about someone that you'd like to

1:08:38be with and so forth because the fantasy

1:08:40is part of the manner in which these

1:08:42underlying biological motivation systems

1:08:44think okay so what do you think how do

1:08:46you think and talk if you're possessed

1:08:48by disgust okay the state did this is

1:08:52this is these are from Hitler's Hitler's

1:08:55utterance

1:08:55the state did not possess the power to

1:08:57master the disease the menacing decay of

1:09:00the Reich was manifest the masses feel

1:09:02that the mere fact of the Jews existence

1:09:04is as bad as the plague politicians

1:09:07tinkering around on the German national

1:09:09body saw at most the forms of our

1:09:11general disease but blindly ignored the

1:09:14virus at the time of the unification the

1:09:16inner Decay was already in full swing

1:09:19and the general situation was

1:09:20deteriorating from year to year the

1:09:22nation did not grow inwardly healthier

1:09:24but obviously languished more and more

1:09:26it's all disease metaphor it's all

1:09:28disease metaphor the symptoms of decay

1:09:30of the pre-war period can be reduced to

1:09:32racial causes anyone who wants to cure

1:09:35this era which is inwardly sick and

1:09:38rotten must first of all summon up the

1:09:40courage to make clear the causes of the

1:09:42disease they think that they must

1:09:43demonstrate that they are ready for

1:09:45appeasement so as to stay the deadly

1:09:47cancerous ulcer through a PO policy of

1:09:49moderation the Jew must take care that

1:09:51the plague does not die if this battle

1:09:54should not come would Decay and at best

1:09:56would sink to Rune like a rotting corpse

1:09:59you can see in the Reich today an

1:10:00example of mortal Decay that is not the

1:10:04speech of someone who's possessed by

1:10:06anxiety that's the speech of someone

1:10:08who's possessed by disgust they're not

1:10:11the same

1:10:13thing the 1st of May can only be the

1:10:16liberation of the nation's Spirit from

1:10:17the infection of internationalism the

1:10:20restoration to health of peoples against

1:10:22the infection of materialism against the

1:10:24Jewish pestilence we must hold a loft a

1:10:26flaming ideal another purification

1:10:29metaphor the restoration to health of

1:10:31our people must start from the

1:10:32restoration to health of the body

1:10:34politics so that was Hitler's essential

1:10:36metaphor the the nation was a body right

1:10:41it was a pure body it was a pure Aryan

1:10:44body and it was being assaulted by

1:10:48parasites that were subjecting it to

1:10:50disease and Decay that's the fundamental

1:10:53metaphor at the bottom of his political

1:10:54message

1:10:56I gave the order to burn burn down to

1:10:59the raw flesh Jesus the ulcers of this

1:11:01poisoning of the

1:11:03wells yeah pretty rough

1:11:06man this is the battle against a

1:11:08veritable World sickness which threatens

1:11:10to infect the peoples a plague which

1:11:12devastates whole peoples an

1:11:14international pestilence the

1:11:16international carry of the basilis must

1:11:18be fought it is with if within this

1:11:20community one state is infected that

1:11:22infection is decisive for all in Europe

1:11:26Europe no common life of the Nations is

1:11:28possible when amongst their number there

1:11:30are some who are suffering from a

1:11:32poisonous infection and who openly Pro

1:11:34profess their desire to infect others

1:11:36with the same disease we shall have a

1:11:38very in real interest in seeing to it

1:11:40that the bulist plague does not spread

1:11:42over Europe national socialism has made

1:11:46our people and therefore the Reich

1:11:48immune from a bevic

1:11:50infection I'll read you one more

1:11:52although obviously you get the point

1:11:53table seven is called the National body

1:11:56is being

1:11:57consumed the Jew is and Remains the

1:11:59typical parasite of sponger who likes a

1:12:02like a noxus billus keeps spreading as

1:12:04soon as a favorable medium invites him

1:12:07all right now I want to show you a brief

1:12:11film and you can you can look here at

1:12:14the at the what would you call it

1:12:16artistic and propagandistic

1:12:18transformation of the idea of order into

1:12:20a politicized message and the thing

1:12:22that's so interesting about Hitler's

1:12:24particular brand fascism it wasn't

1:12:26precisely an uh see it it wasn't

1:12:28precisely a movement that was predicated

1:12:30on ideas like communism communism was

1:12:33predicated on ideas but the Nazis went

1:12:35at it with something that wasn't really

1:12:37in the realm of idea it was more in the

1:12:38realm of like embodied disgust and image

1:12:41and so it was also very much more

1:12:43difficult to fight against from the

1:12:44ideational perspective you know it

1:12:46wasn't a well-developed intellectual

1:12:48movement it was an embodied movement and

1:12:52Hitler was extraordinarily good at using

1:12:54the metaphors and the images and then

1:12:56his incredible capacity for for

1:12:58propagandistic display to fire people up

1:13:01at a level of analysis that they weren't

1:13:03really even aware of so let's take a

1:13:05look at this film

1:13:07[Music]

1:13:33for

1:13:45[Music]

1:14:16the campaign in Poland gave us the

1:14:18opportunity to really get to know the

1:14:20Jewish people

1:14:28nearly 4 million Jews live here in

1:14:32Poland but they won't be found among the

1:14:34rural

1:14:35population nor have they suffered from

1:14:37the chaos of War as has the native

1:14:40po they set it out indifferently in the

1:14:42gloomy streets of the Polish

1:14:44[Music]

1:14:47ghetto within an hour after the German

1:14:50occupation they were back in business

1:14:56[Music]

1:15:13we Germans had a look at the Polish

1:15:15ghetto 25 years ago this time our eyes

1:15:18are sharpened by our experience in the

1:15:20last few decades

1:15:26unlike in 1914 we no longer see just the

1:15:29most grotesque and comical of these

1:15:32questionable ghetto figures this time we

1:15:35recognize that there's a plague here a

1:15:38plague that threatens the health of the

1:15:40Arian

1:15:42peoples rard Wagner once said the Jew is

1:15:46the demon behind the corruption of

1:15:50mankind and these pictures prove it

1:15:58[Music]

1:16:20Jewish Home life reveals remarkable lack

1:16:22of creative ability to civilize

1:16:29in plain language Jewish dwellings are

1:16:32filthy and

1:16:39neglected these Jews aren't at all poor

1:16:42after Decades of business they've

1:16:44hoarded enough to acquire decent

1:16:46comfortable

1:16:50homes but they live for Generations in

1:16:53the same dirty and bug ridden

1:17:02dwellings untroubled by their

1:17:04surroundings they go right on with their

1:17:11prayers the bobbing motion is part of

1:17:13the ritual for reading Jewish scriptures

1:17:19[Music]

1:17:24part of Jewish so-called Community Life

1:17:27takes place in the

1:17:30[Music]

1:17:49street the connection with trade you

1:17:51know you see what's going on in the okay

1:17:54so with the ju deposition of those two

1:17:56films you see the jux deposition of

1:17:58order versus chaos and so part of the

1:18:01order versus chaos archetype obviously

1:18:03is is rooted in the dichotomy between

1:18:06disgust and Purity it's not the only

1:18:09it's not the only axis of O opposition

1:18:12between Order and Chaos and then so this

1:18:14is all invocation of archetypal chaos

1:18:17and it starts with the the the the use

1:18:21of the disease imagery and then also the

1:18:23use of uh music composed in a minor key

1:18:27and threatening and low right so that's

1:18:29all josed together and then they switch

1:18:32to trade again with the this undertone

1:18:34of threat and there's a hand-to-hand

1:18:37exchange of goods and it seems to me

1:18:38that they're they're using the image to

1:18:41continue the metaphor that in this

1:18:42situation trade is associated with

1:18:45contamination rather than with

1:18:46productivity right and so you and you

1:18:49can see obviously a dichotomy with

1:18:52regards to trade because when you're

1:18:53taking goods from someone else the

1:18:55question is are the goods of high

1:18:56quality and useful and are they useful

1:18:58are they something that is going to

1:18:59introduce a foreign element or or an

1:19:02unexpected element into your house and

1:19:04so this film is obviously taking the the

1:19:08that ambivalence that's associated with

1:19:10trade and placing it into the chaos

1:19:13order archetype and then associating it

1:19:15with disgust so it's very very sneaky

1:19:18and it's not done it's done by inference

1:19:21rather than directly which I think is

1:19:23much more powerful way of doing this

1:19:25sort of

1:19:25[Music]

1:19:48thing and one of the things that's

1:19:50interesting too is that you know you can

1:19:53imagine that if you're if if you're

1:19:54seeing people who are poor and

1:19:56downtrodden that that might evoke two

1:19:58possible sets of responses one might be

1:20:00a compassionate response and that would

1:20:01be the desire to help right and the

1:20:03other would be the desire to distance

1:20:05yourself of course you feel the same

1:20:07thing for example if you're walking down

1:20:09blur and you find somebody who's you

1:20:10know a completely wrecked Street person

1:20:12lying there in their sleeping bag in a

1:20:14doorway it's like well what's your

1:20:15response going to be is it Compassion or

1:20:17is it is it fear is it disgust well it's

1:20:20going to depend on your mood and all

1:20:22sorts of other things it's going to

1:20:23depend on the particulars of this

1:20:24situation it's going to depend on your

1:20:26temperament but you can see that those

1:20:28two things they're both automatically

1:20:31evocable responses and it isn't

1:20:33self-evident which one is going to come

1:20:34to the four nor is it always

1:20:36self-evident which one should come to

1:20:37the four because part of the reason that

1:20:39you're ambivalent about a situation like

1:20:41that is because you have no idea what

1:20:43would happen even if you did choose to

1:20:45interact and so you can't just

1:20:48simply what would you say there's no

1:20:51simple way of solving a problem like

1:20:53that and so that's why why there's a war

1:20:55of competing emotions when you're in a

1:20:57when you're in a situation like that but

1:20:58you could imagine as well you could have

1:21:00taken the same images and put them to

1:21:02different music and used a different

1:21:03overlay and it could have been a call to

1:21:05compassion but that's not what it is

1:21:07here it's a call to contempt and

1:21:12extermination because that's also

1:21:13another danger of I suppose insisting

1:21:17upon the fact that a a given population

1:21:21is victimized I suppose that might be

1:21:23way of one one way of thinking about it

1:21:25because there's two different sets of

1:21:27categorical responses to people who are

1:21:29at the bottom of the dominance hierarchy

1:21:31and one of them is compassion but the

1:21:33other one is more like this it's not

1:21:35necessarily something that you want to

1:21:36carelessly evoke

1:21:38[Music]

1:22:02one might want to regard these haggling

1:22:04children as a sign of great

1:22:08poverty but watch them a while and it

1:22:11becomes clear that they're proud to act

1:22:14as their grown-ups

1:22:16do these young people don't have the

1:22:19idealism that ours

1:22:21do with them the egoism of the

1:22:23individual is not in the service of

1:22:25higher common

1:22:28goals instead Jewish Morality In crass

1:22:32contradiction of the Arian concept of

1:22:34Ethics proclaims the unrestrained egoism

1:22:37of every Jew to be Divine

1:22:41Law his religion makes cheating and

1:22:43usury a

1:22:46duty in the fifth book of Moses for

1:22:48example it is stated that a non-jew thou

1:22:51May loan to upon usury but not th

1:22:58brother that the Lord May bless thee in

1:23:01all thy

1:23:03dealings for the Jews then doing

1:23:06business is something

1:23:09holy this is totally incomprehensible to

1:23:13non-jews Arian man attaches a sense of

1:23:16Worth to every

1:23:18activity he wants to create something

1:23:20worthwhile food or clothing houses or

1:23:25machines and so there's a contrast there

1:23:27they actually use a contrast there

1:23:29between industrious and non- industrious

1:23:31too which is quite interesting works of

1:23:33art or anything else of value to

1:23:37everyone he's ruled by the feeling of

1:23:39being responsible for his achievements

1:23:44[Music]

1:24:06for the Jew there's but one thing of

1:24:09value

1:24:10money how he gets it makes no

1:24:14difference the first trade goods are

1:24:17generally worthless trash of All

1:24:20Sorts that's how the little Jews start

1:24:22out

1:24:24soon they reached the point where they

1:24:26can sell from a tray and before long

1:24:29they've assembled a complete line of

1:24:33[Music]

1:24:36goods not long after they own a regular

1:24:40stand the most ambitious soon own a

1:24:42small shop and then a bigger

1:24:50[Music]

1:24:52shop the most cunning

1:24:54that is the most unscrupulous eventually

1:24:57have warehouses and Banks and move into

1:25:00the most Splendid mansions in the cities

1:25:03provided that they don't get in each

1:25:04other's way as in the narrow ghettos of

1:25:07the

1:25:08[Music]

1:25:15East that's why they try to escape to

1:25:18Rich lands with rich people

1:25:25[Music]

1:25:28they need other so in the next part of

1:25:29the film there's another something else

1:25:32that's done implicitly so you'll see a

1:25:34globe and then there's spread of um of

1:25:38migration and the underlying metaphor

1:25:41there is again the spread of disease

1:25:44peoples because they need the Wares with

1:25:46which to do

1:25:51business creative Aran peoples find a

1:25:53value has been reduced by the Jew to

1:25:56Mere

1:25:57merchandise he buys and sells but

1:26:00produces

1:26:03[Music]

1:26:05nothing the production he leaves to the

1:26:08workers and farmers of the host

1:26:10nation it's funny there there's an echo

1:26:12of marxist ideology in there too that's

1:26:14very interesting because what they're

1:26:16the

1:26:17the the insistence is that the the labor

1:26:22that goes into basic production

1:26:23qualifies as labor but the labor that

1:26:25goes into Mercantile activity doesn't

1:26:27qualify as labor at all it's not like

1:26:28the Nazis were Pro capitalist by any

1:26:30stretch of the imagination so there's

1:26:32this strange distinction drawn between

1:26:35like it's almost like physical

1:26:36production that seems to be something

1:26:37that's valued it's the use of your

1:26:39musculature say but then as soon as it's

1:26:41elevated up into trade which is

1:26:43obviously a value added process I mean

1:26:45that that's almost self-evident but it's

1:26:47put forward here as something that's

1:26:49only that's only uh parasitical that's

1:26:52right that and that's a commonality with

1:26:54with the Marxism of the

1:27:02time the Jews are a people without

1:27:04Farmers or workers a race of

1:27:10[Music]

1:27:19parasites wherever the body of a Nation

1:27:22shows a wound they anchor themselves and

1:27:25feed on the decaying

1:27:28organism they make business out of the

1:27:30sickness of the

1:27:31Nations and therefore Endeavor to deepen

1:27:34and prolong all conditions of

1:27:37sickness how it is in Poland and was in

1:27:42Germany the Jews have been this way

1:27:44throughout their entire history their

1:27:46faces bear the AG old features of the

1:27:49Perpetual sponger the Eternal Jew who in

1:27:53the course of time and worldwide

1:27:55wanderings has always been the

1:27:58same there's no difference between these

1:28:01Jews in Poland and those in

1:28:03Palestine though the two are

1:28:05geographically separated

1:28:12[Music]

1:28:27[Music]

1:28:34Palestine is the spiritual center of

1:28:36international jewry though the Jews are

1:28:39numerically insignificant

1:28:42there here at the Wailing Wall they

1:28:45gather and mourn the fall of Jerusalem

1:28:48[Music]

1:28:58their homelessness though is a matter of

1:29:01choice and in keeping with their entire

1:29:04history 4,000 years ago their Hebrew

1:29:07ancestors were already

1:29:09wandering out of the land of Two Rivers

1:29:12they wandered along the sea to

1:29:14Egypt where they ran a lucrative grain

1:29:17business for a while when the country

1:29:19farmers and other Egyptians Rose against

1:29:21the foreign usurers and speculators they

1:29:24wandered once more and plundered their

1:29:26way to the promised land they settled

1:29:29there mercilessly looting the culturally

1:29:32Superior rightful

1:29:36inhabitants here in the course of

1:29:38centuries from the Oriental Far Eastern

1:29:41racial mixture with negroid admixture

1:29:44the ultimate mongrelized Jews

1:29:46developed foreign from us Europeans born

1:29:49of totally different racial elements

1:29:52they differ from us in body and above

1:29:54all in

1:29:56Soul we probably would never have been

1:29:58bothered by them had they stayed in

1:30:00their Oriental

1:30:03home but the Cosmopolitan Empire of

1:30:06Alexander the Great reaching from the

1:30:08near east across half the

1:30:10Mediterranean and especially the

1:30:12boundless World Empire of the Romans

1:30:15brought about the evolution of the trade

1:30:17and migratory traits of the Jews who

1:30:19soon spread across the open

1:30:21Mediterranean area while some of them

1:30:23said settled in the large Urban traffic

1:30:25and Trade Centers of the

1:30:30Mediterranean others wandered

1:30:32relentlessly on across Spain France

1:30:36Southern Germany and

1:30:39England everywhere they made themselves

1:30:42unwelcome in Spain and France the people

1:30:45Rose openly against them in the 13th and

1:30:4714th centuries and they wandered on

1:30:50mainly to Germany

1:30:53[Music]

1:30:55there they followed the path of the

1:30:56Arian

1:30:58culture creative Germans colonizing the

1:31:01East till they finally found a gigantic

1:31:03new untapped Reservoir in the Polish and

1:31:06Russian sections of Eastern

1:31:08Europe so well let's let's tie that

1:31:14together we talked about the use of

1:31:17archetypes archetypes in

1:31:20stories we talked about the the

1:31:24relationship between archetypal

1:31:26symbolism and the biological

1:31:28underpinnings of the human

1:31:30psyche and then you can see that

1:31:32manifesting itself in this sort of

1:31:34propaganda in the political positions

1:31:36that come out of it you tap into the

1:31:38archetyp archetypal Dimension that's

1:31:41chaos versus order you can you can place

1:31:44one against the other however you want

1:31:46from a propagandistic perspective

1:31:47because you could make a film decrying

1:31:49excessive order that that's not a

1:31:51difficult thing to do but that isn't

1:31:52what happens here Order is associated

1:31:54with the sun and with what's good and

1:31:56with honest labor and with Purity and

1:31:58with health and chaos is associated with

1:32:01Decay and disgust and and impurity and

1:32:04also with trade which is extremely

1:32:06interesting and the trade Dynamic you

1:32:08could see that in the second part of the

1:32:09film there there was a there was the

1:32:11implication that it was involvement in

1:32:13trade that was associated with this

1:32:15pathological spread right and so trade

1:32:17is that's another reflection of of the

1:32:20ambivalence towards the transgression of

1:32:22borders is trade a good thing or is it a

1:32:23bad thing well that's always a political

1:32:25issue it's a huge political issue right

1:32:26now right you're going to have

1:32:28internationalist trade or you're going

1:32:29to close the borders you're going to

1:32:30have internationalist trade and open it

1:32:32or you going to close the borders and so

1:32:34the degree to which the borders should

1:32:36be open or closed I think generally

1:32:38speaking is the prime political question

1:32:39and of course we're going through an

1:32:41absolute convulsion of that sort of

1:32:42argumentation again right now part of

1:32:45the reason I I wanted to show you this I

1:32:47mean there's a variety reasons I wanted

1:32:48to show you um how the how the archetype

1:32:53and the underlying biology are are

1:32:55tightly Associated but I also wanted to

1:32:57show you how those associations can be

1:33:00hijacked essentially and used for

1:33:02propagandistic and political purposes

1:33:04because you need to know that because

1:33:06these sorts of things have a very

1:33:08powerful they have the capacity for a

1:33:10very powerful emotional appeal and the

1:33:13only possible way of resisting that I

1:33:16would say and and avoiding the

1:33:18temptation of allowing extraordinarily

1:33:21complex issues to be catastrophically

1:33:23reduced to there to to principles that

1:33:25are far too simple to do them Justice is

1:33:28to become at least aware to some degree

1:33:30of what the mechanisms for the

1:33:32production of such propaganda are and

1:33:35why they have such potency then you have

1:33:37at least some ghost of a chance of

1:33:39reducing your own what would you call it

1:33:42proclivity we could even call it a

1:33:43temperamental proclivity to the kind of

1:33:45propagandistic information that happens

1:33:47to suit your temperament best so well we

1:33:51all know the aftermath of this sort of

1:33:52thing right was Absol abolutely Dreadful

1:33:54and we're by no means out of the woods

1:33:56on that yet you know you see in Europe

1:33:59and in the United States increasingly

1:34:02calls

1:34:03for the the nationalistic enclosure of

1:34:06borders again you saw that with Trump

1:34:08and the building of the wall between

1:34:09Mexico and the United States so these

1:34:12things can get very badly out of hand

1:34:14and it's a it's a very bad idea to allow

1:34:17things to swing too far to one way or

1:34:19too far to the other because all hell

1:34:21breaks loose when you do that and well

1:34:24all right we'll see you on Thursday

1:34:28[Applause]