People easily disgusted by smells more prone to xenophobia, study suggests

People more easily disgusted by body-related odours are more likely to express xenophobic views, a new study suggests.

Many species use smell to detect and avoid potential diseases, with the odour of spoiled foods, bodily waste, or others showing signs of infectious illness capable of triggering a revulsion which results in social distancing.

New research by Stockholm’s Karolinska Institute seeking to better understand this psychological link between disease avoidance and xenophobia has found that “individuals more easily disgusted by body odours are also more prone to having negative attitudes towards refugees”.

This link is partially explained by perceived dissimilarities in cultural differences such as food preparation and hygiene practices, according to the study, published in the Royal Society Open Science journal.

The study also found that those with xenophobic attitudes were more likely to be older and less educated.

Nearly 7,000 people from nine different countries, including the United Kingdom, were asked to complete questionnaires on various subjects during early waves of the coronavirus pandemic, starting in Italy and Sweden in April 2020 and concluding in the other countries in January 2021.

In the first questionnaire, participants were graded on their revulsion to six types of body odours – faeces, upper body sweat, feet, urine, gas and breath – when encountered both at home and in public, while a separate survey assessed their general attitudes towards immigration.

A third questionnaire aimed at assessing specific xenophobia saw participants answer questions about their feelings towards refugees from a fictional country named Drashnea, which they were either told was in East Africa or Eastern Europe.

Participants were told that Drashnea “has been experiencing a great deal of civil unrest in recent years”, and that a “large number of these refugees are seeking to immigrate to your country”.

They were then asked about their overall attitudes to Drashneans, to what extent the fictional refugees could bring health-related problems and criminality into their own country, and how similar they perceived Drashneans to be in terms of food, hygiene and sanitary practices.

The researchers identified a link between xenophobia towards the fictional refugee groups and how strongly people reported being disgusted by body odours, in results which “generalised well across most countries” included in the study.

While participants were found to perceive the fictional East Africans to be more dissimilar, the level of prejudice towards them was the same as towards the fictional Eastern European group, according to the study.

But it states that: “Rather than geographical or genetic difference, perceived similarity in food preparation practices seems to be a driver of xenophobic attitudes.”

Their findings also suggest “that the relationship between BODS [body odour disgust sensitivity] and prejudice is strongest in Western cultures, especially in English-speaking countries”.

“The observed result was partially explained by how respondents perceived the refugee group as different in terms of food, hygiene and sanitary practices, and general attitudes towards immigration,” the study states.

“This is in line with the disease avoidance theory that aims to explain suggesting that social behaviours and attitudes are connected to avoiding pathogens.”

However, the researchers noted that the strength of the link between body odour disgust sensitivity and xenophobia was similar to that identified in a pre-pandemic study.

This “could suggest that a salient pathogen threat does not necessarily dramatically affect relations between disgust and attitudes towards fictitious outgroups”, the authors said.