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89-501: The Sports Illustrated cover jinx is an urban legend that states that individuals or teams who appear on the cover of the Sports Illustrated magazine will subsequently be jinxed . A common explanation for the perceived effect is that athletes are generally featured on the cover after an exceptionally good performance, which might be an outlier compared to their usual level of performance. Therefore, their future performance

178-508: A brain scanner . In conservatives , the basal ganglia and amygdala and several other regions showed increased activity, while in liberals other regions of the brain increased in activity. Both groups reported similar conscious reactions to the images. The difference in activity patterns was large: the reaction to a single image could predict a person's political leanings with 95% accuracy. Later, however, such results have been proven to be mixed, with failed replications and questions about what

267-407: A cryptid —for instance, Bigfoot or Mothman , legendary creatures for which evidence is lacking but which have legions of believers. Research shows that people experiencing sudden or surprising events (such as a Bigfoot sighting) may significantly overestimate the duration of the event. Companies have been accused of hiding "secret messages" behind their logos or packaging, as in the case of

356-463: A friend of a friend ), which serves to personalize, authenticate and enhance the power of the narrative while distancing the teller from the tall tale . Many urban legends depict horrific crimes, contaminated foods, or other situations that would potentially affect many people. Anyone believing such stories might feel compelled to warn loved ones. On occasion, news organizations, school officials and even police departments have issued warnings concerning

445-504: A "flash of intuition" and that these affective perceptions operate rapidly, associatively, and outside of consciousness . From this, moral intuitions are believed to be stimulated prior to conscious moral cognitions which correlates with having a greater influence on moral judgments. Research suggests that the experience of disgust can alter moral judgments. Many studies have focused on the average change in behavior across participants, with some studies indicating disgust stimuli intensifies

534-417: A certain aspect of morality. Horberg et al. found that disgust plays a role in the development and intensification of moral judgments of purity in particular. In other words, the feeling of disgust is often associated with a feeling that some image of what is pure has been violated. For example, a vegetarian might feel disgust after seeing another person eating meat because he/she has a view of vegetarianism as

623-473: A conspecific looking disgusted after tasting a particular food, he or she automatically infers that the food is bad and should not be eaten. This evidence suggests that disgust is experienced and recognized almost universally and strongly implicates its evolutionary significance. Facial feedback has also been implicated in the expression of disgust. That is, the making of the facial expression of disgust leads to an increased feeling of disgust. This can occur if

712-435: A crime are more guilty. They also associate them as being morally evil and criminal, thus endorsing them to harsher punishment in the setting of a court. Disgust is also theorized as an evaluative emotion that can control moral behavior . When one experiences disgust, this emotion might signal that certain behaviors, objects, or people are to be avoided in order to preserve their purity . Research has established that when

801-896: A desire to avoid the possibility of an open wound on the victim of the aggression. Those sensitive to sexual disgust must have some sexual object present to be especially avoidant of aggression. Based on these findings, disgust may be used as an emotional tool to decrease aggression in individuals. Disgust may produce specific autonomic responses, such as reduced blood pressure, lowered heart-rate and decreased skin conductance along with changes in respiratory behaviour. Research has also found that people who are more sensitive to disgust tend to find their own in-group more attractive and tend to have more negative attitudes toward other groups. This may be explained by assuming that people begin to associate outsiders and foreigners with disease and danger while simultaneously associating health, freedom from disease, and safety with people similar to themselves. Taking

890-536: A desire to survive and, ultimately, a fear of death. He compares it to a "behavioral immune system" that is the 'first line of defense' against potentially deadly agents such as dead bodies, rotting food, and vomit. Sexual disgust arises from a desire to avoid "biologically costly mates" and a consideration of the consequences of certain reproductive choices. The two primary considerations are intrinsic quality (e.g., body symmetry, facial attractiveness, etc.) and genetic compatibility (e.g., avoidance of inbreeding such as

979-427: A friend told me", the friend being identified by first name only or not identified at all. Such legends seem to be believable and even provocative, as some readers are led in turn to pass them on, including on social media platforms that instantly reach millions worldwide. Many are essentially extended jokes , told as if they were true events. Persistent urban legends do often maintain a degree of plausibility, as in

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1068-607: A further look into hygiene, disgust was the strongest predictor of negative attitudes toward obese individuals. A disgust reaction to obese individuals was also connected with views of moral values. Tybur, et al., outlines three domains of disgust: pathogen disgust , which "motivates the avoidance of infectious microorganisms"; sexual disgust , "which motivates the avoidance of [dangerous] sexual partners and behaviors"; and moral disgust , which motivates people to avoid breaking social norms . Disgust may have an important role in certain forms of morality. Pathogen disgust arises from

1157-536: A greater desire for a social distance from participants. Jones & Fitness (2008) coined the term "moral hypervigilance " to describe the phenomenon that individuals who are prone to physical disgust are also prone to moral disgust. The link between physical disgust and moral disgust can be seen in the United States where criminals are often referred to as "slime" or "scum" and criminal activity as "stinking" or being "fishy". Furthermore, people often try to block out

1246-505: A long-running column in The Sunday Times . These include the story that Orson Welles began work on a Batman movie in the 1940s, which was to feature James Cagney as the Riddler and Marlene Dietrich as Catwoman ; the persistent rumour that the rock singer Courtney Love is the granddaughter of Marlon Brando ; and the idea that a famous 1970s poster of Farrah Fawcett contains

1335-458: A negative face. Young children tend to associate a face showing disgust with anger instead of being able to identify the difference. Adults can make the distinction. The age of understanding seems to be around ten years old. Because disgust is partially a result of social conditioning , there are differences among different cultures in the objects of disgust. For example, Americans "are more likely to link feelings of disgust to actions that limit

1424-462: A person's rights or degrade a person's dignity" while Japanese people "are more likely to link feelings of disgust to actions that frustrate their integration into the social world." Furthermore, practices viewed as acceptable in some cultures may be viewed as disgusting in other cultures. In English the concept disgust can apply to both physical and abstract things, but in Hindi and Malayalam languages,

1513-441: A standard tool in measuring disgust response. When given a stimulus intraorally which had been previously paired with a nausea -inducing substance, rats will show conditioned disgust reactions. "Gaping" in rats is the most dominant conditioned disgust reaction and the muscles used in this response mimic those used in species capable of vomiting. Studies have shown that treatments that reduced serotonin availability or that activate

1602-439: A subliminal sexual message concealed in the actress's hair. As with traditional urban legends, many internet rumors are about crimes or crime waves – either fictional or based on real events that have been largely exaggerated. Such stories can be problematic, both because they purport to be relevant modern news and because they do not follow the typical patterns of urban legends. Some legends are medical folklore , such as

1691-420: A system involved in recognizing social signals of disgust, due to a damaged insula caused by neurodegeneration. Many patients with Huntington's disease , a genetically transmitted progressive neurodegenerative disease, are unable to recognize expressions of disgust in others and also don't show reactions of disgust to foul odors or tastes. The inability to recognize expressions of disgust appears in carriers of

1780-677: A trade-off between the nutritional value of the food items and the risk of infection from the biological contaminants, with the chimps weighing the benefit of the food more heavily than the risk of contamination. In contrast to chimpanzees, Japanese macaques are more sensitive to visual cues of contaminants when there is no accompanying odor. Bonobos are most sensitive to fecal odors and rotten food odors. Overall, primates incorporate various senses in their feeding decisions, with disgust being an adaptive trait that helps them avoid potential parasites and other threats from contaminants. The most frequently reported disgust-like behavior in non-human primates

1869-566: A typical urban legend is its elements of mystery, horror , fear, or humor. Often they serve as cautionary tales . Some urban legends are morality tales that depict someone acting in a disagreeable manner, only to wind up in trouble, hurt, or dead. Urban legends will often try to invoke a feeling of disgust in the reader which tends to make these stories more memorable and potent. Elements of shock value can be found in almost every form of urban legend and are partially what makes these tales so impactful. An urban legend may include elements of

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1958-476: A way to make sense of societal anxieties. In the past, urban legends were most often circulated orally, at gatherings and around the campfire for instance. Now, they can be spread by any media, including newspapers, mobile news apps, e-mail , and most often, social media . Some urban legends have passed through the years/decades with only minor changes, in where the time period takes place. Generic urban legends are often altered to suit regional variations, but

2047-426: Is Eddie Mathews who suffered a broken hand while the team's nine game winning streak came to a close following the cover. In this case, the odds are that a player will suffer an injury while playing any given sport. Injuries are a given in a physical contact sport such as American football or baseball, which is what Mathews played. Even injuries in individual sports such as skiing can fall under this explanation as it

2136-415: Is a strong difference in disgust reactions between the two sexes, this difference has not been documented in non-human primates. In humans, women generally report greater disgust than men. In bonobos and chimps, females are not any more avoidant than males of contamination risk. There is some evidence suggesting that juveniles are less contamination-risk avoidant than adults, which is in line with research on

2225-538: Is associated with a decrease in heart rate. It is believed that the emotion of disgust has evolved as a response to offensive foods that may cause harm to the organism. A common example of this is found in human beings who show disgust reactions to mouldy milk or contaminated meat. Disgust appears to be triggered by objects or people who possess attributes that signify disease. Self-report and behavioural studies found that disgust elicitors include: The above-mentioned main disgust stimuli are similar to one another in

2314-439: Is characteristic of groups within which a given narrative circulates to vehemently reject claims or demonstrations of non-factuality; an example would be the expressions of outrage by police officers who are told that adulteration of Halloween treats by strangers (the subject of periodic moral panics ) occurs extremely rarely, if at all. The Internet has made it easier both to spread and to debunk urban legends. For instance,

2403-448: Is common to make a bad move in this sport and get caught up in a massive mistake of the athlete's own doing which results in injury. Finally, winning and losing streaks come to a close in all sports and this includes Milwaukee's nine-game winning streak in 1954. This makes the 1972 Miami Dolphins perfect season, 2007 New England Patriots perfect regular season, and the 2008 Detroit Lions , and 2017 Cleveland Browns winless seasons all

2492-514: Is due to their particular experience of disgust. One's disgust sensitivity can be either high or low. The higher one's disgust sensitivity is, the greater the tendency to make stricter moral judgments. Disgust sensitivity can also relate to various aspects of moral values, which can have a negative or positive impact. For example, Disgust sensitivity is associated with moral hypervigilance, which means people who have higher disgust sensitivity are more likely to think that other people who are suspects of

2581-707: Is expelling bad-tasting food items, but even this behavior is not very common. This might be because primates effectively avoid potentially bad-tasting food items, and food that is avoided cannot be expelled, hence the low observation rate of this behavior. Primates, notably gorillas and chimpanzees, occasionally make facial expressions such as grimacing and tongue protrusions after having bad-tasting food. Individual primate preferences vary widely, some tolerating extremely bitter food, while others are more particular. Taste preferences are more often noticed in high ranking individuals, likely because lower ranked individuals may have to tolerate less-desired foods. While in humans there

2670-420: Is further supported by neuropsychological studies. Both Calder (2000) and Adolphs (2003) showed that lesions on the anterior insula lead to deficits in the experience of disgust and recognizing facial expressions of disgust in others. The patients also reported having reduced sensations of disgust themselves. Furthermore, electrical stimulation of the anterior insula conducted during neurosurgery triggered nausea,

2759-422: Is in contrast with human disease avoidance, where avoiding those who appear sick is a key feature. Taken together, studies on the disgust reaction in primates show that disgust is adaptive in primates and that the avoidance of potential sources of pathogens is triggered by the same contaminants as for humans. The adaptive problems that primates faced did not align to the degree that they did for early humans, which

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2848-428: Is likely to display regression toward the mean and be less impressive by comparison. This decline in performance would then be misperceived as being related to, or even possibly caused by, the appearance on the magazine cover. Most athletes that seemed to suffer the jinx most typically suffered because of an injury to their body, or some other bad luck following their appearance. One prime candidate for this explanation

2937-570: Is more costly to perceive a sick person as healthy than to perceive a healthy person as sickly". Researchers have found that sensitivity to disgust is negatively correlated to aggression because feelings of disgust typically bring about a need to withdraw while aggression results in a need to approach. This can be explained in terms of each of the types of disgust. For those especially sensitive to moral disgust, they would want to be less aggressive because they want to avoid hurting others. Those especially sensitive to pathogen disgust might be motivated by

3026-445: Is why disgust manifests differently in humans and non-human primates. Differences in disgust responses between humans and non-human primates likely reflects their unique ecological standpoints. Rather than disgust being a unique human emotion, disgust is a continuation of the parasite and infection avoidance behavior found in all animals. One theory explaining the difference is that since primates are largely foragers and never shifted to

3115-577: The Slender Man , have gained a following of people that do believe in them . Television shows such as Urban Legends , Beyond Belief: Fact or Fiction , and later Mostly True Stories: Urban Legends Revealed , feature re-enactments of urban legends, detailing the accounts of the tales and (typically later in an episode) revealing any factual basis they may have. The Discovery Channel TV show MythBusters (2003–2016) tried to prove or disprove several urban legends by attempting to reproduce them using

3204-535: The Usenet newsgroup alt.folklore.urban and several other websites, most notably snopes.com , focus on discussing, tracking, and analyzing urban legends. The United States Department of Energy had a now-discontinued service called Hoaxbusters that dealt with computer-distributed hoaxes and legends. The most notable such hoaxes are known as creepypastas , which are typically horror stories written anonymously. Although most are regarded as obviously false, some, such as

3293-400: The endocannabinoid system can interfere with the expression of a conditioned disgust reaction in rats. These researchers showed that as nausea produced conditioned disgust reactions, by administering the rats with an antinausea treatment they could prevent toxin-induced conditioned disgust reactions. Furthermore, in looking at the different disgust and vomiting reactions between rats and shrews

3382-610: The incest taboo ). Moral disgust "pertains to social transgressions" and may include behaviors such as lying, theft, murder, and rape. Unlike the other two domains, moral disgust "motivates avoidance of social relationships with norm-violating individuals" because those relationships threaten group cohesion. Women generally report greater disgust than men, especially regarding sexual disgust or general repulsiveness which have been argued to be consistent with women being more selective regarding sex for evolutionary reasons. Sensitivity to disgust rises during pregnancy, along with levels of

3471-444: The scientific method . The 1998 film Urban Legend featured students discussing popular urban legends while at the same time falling victim to killings re-enacting them. The 1999 film The Blair Witch Project purposefully positioned itself as an urban legend to gain viral hype and succeeded in fooling many that it was based on a real disappearance. The lack of widespread social media and search engines helped it proliferate in

3560-475: The supernatural or paranormal . As Jan Brunvand points out, antecedent legends including some of the motifs, themes and symbolism of the urtexts can readily be identified. Cases that may have been at least partially inspired by real events include "The Death Car" (traced by Richard Dorson to Michigan , United States ); "the Solid Cement Cadillac" and the possible origin of " The Hook " in

3649-567: The 1946 series of Lovers' Lane murders in Texarkana, Texas , United States. The urban legend that Coca-Cola developed the drink Fanta to sell in Nazi Germany without public backlash originated as the actual tale of German Max Keith , who invented the drink and ran Coca-Cola's operations in Germany during World War II . The narrator of an urban legend may claim it happened to a friend (or to

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3738-485: The 2006 study done by Simpson and colleagues, there was a divergence found in disgust responses between the core elicitors of disgust and the socio-moral elicitors of disgust, suggesting that the makeup of core and socio-moral disgust may be different emotional constructs. Studies have found that disgust has been known to predict prejudice and discrimination. Through passive viewing tasks and functional magnetic resonance researchers were able to provide direct evidence that

3827-462: The Huntington gene before other symptoms appear. People with Huntington's disease are impaired at recognition of anger and fear, and experience a notably severe problem with disgust recognition. Patients with major depression have been found to display greater brain activation to facial expressions of disgust. Self-disgust, which is disgust directed towards one's own actions, may also contribute to

3916-579: The International Affective Picture System during f-MRI scans. OCD subjects showed significantly greater neural responses to disgust-invoking images, specifically in the right insula. Furthermore, Sprengelmeyer (1997) found that the brain activation associated with disgust included the insula and part of the gustatory cortex that processes unpleasant tastes and smells. OCD subjects and healthy volunteers showed activation patterns in response to disgust pictures that differed significantly at

4005-411: The activation of the insula in disgust recognition, as well as visceral changes in disgust reactions such as the feeling of nausea. The importance of disgust recognition and the visceral reaction of "feeling disgusted" is evident when considering the survival of organisms, and the evolutionary benefit of avoiding contamination. The insula (or insular cortex ), is the main neural structure involved in

4094-400: The anterior portion of the ventral superior temporal cortex, where cells have been found to respond to the sight of faces. The posterior insula is characterized by connections with auditory , somatosensory , and premotor areas, and is not related to the olfactory or gustatory modalities. The fact that the insula is necessary for our ability to feel and recognize the emotion of disgust

4183-586: The area postrema and the parabrachial nucleus of the pons but not the nucleus of the solitary tract prevented conditioned disgust. Moreover, lesions of the dorsal and medial raphe nuclei (depleting forebrain serotonin ) prevented the establishment of lithium chloride-induced conditioned disgust. Non-human primates display signs of disgust and aversion to biological contaminants. Exposure to bodily excrements that usually elicit disgust reactions in humans, such as feces, semen, or blood, have an impact on primates' feeding preferences. Chimpanzees generally avoid

4272-430: The authors showed that these reactions (particularly vomiting) play a crucial role in the associative processes that govern food selection across species. In discussing specific neural locations of disgust, research has shown that forebrain mechanisms are necessary for rats to acquire conditioned disgust for a specific emetic (vomit-inducing) substance (such as lithium chloride ). Other studies have shown that lesions to

4361-405: The claim that eating watermelon seeds will result in a watermelon growing in the stomach , or that going outdoors just after showering will result in catching a cold. Many old wives' tales have grown around the identification of ailments, real and imagined, and the recommended remedies, rituals, and home-grown medical treatments to treat them. Internet urban legends are those spread through

4450-507: The concept does not apply to both. Disgust is one of the basic emotions recognizable across multiple cultures and is a response to something revolting typically involving taste or sight. Though different cultures find different things disgusting, the reaction to the grotesque things remains the same throughout each culture; people and their emotional reactions in the realm of disgust remain the same. The scientific attempts to map specific emotions onto underlying neural substrates dates back to

4539-772: The degree that establishing non-factuality warrants the assumption that there must be some other reason why the tales are told, re-told and believed. As in the case of myth , the narratives are believed because they construct and reinforce the worldview of the group within which they are told, or "because they provide us with coherent and convincing explanations of complex events". Social scientists have started to draw on urban legends in order to help explain complex socio-psychological beliefs, such as attitudes to crime, childcare, fast food, SUVs and other "family" choices. The authors make an explicit connection between urban legends and popular folklore, such as Grimm's Fairy Tales , where similar themes and motifs arise. For that reason, it

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4628-767: The development of the disgust response in humans. Coprophagy is commonly observed in chimpanzees, possibly suggesting that chimps do not really have a disgust mechanism the way humans do. Coprophagy is usually only done to re-ingest seeds from one's own feces, which is less risky than ingesting others' feces in terms of exposure to new parasites. Additionally, chimps often use leaves and twigs to wipe themselves when they stepped in others' feces instead of removing it with their bare hands. Great apes almost always remove feces from their bodies after accidentally stepping in it, even in instances where it would be beneficial to wait. For example, when grapes are being passed out to chimps and they accidentally step in feces, they almost always take

4717-404: The emotion of disgust. As mentioned earlier, women experience disgust more prominently than men. This is reflected in a study about dental phobia. A dental phobia comes from experiencing disgust when thinking about the dentist and all that entails. 4.6 percent of women compared to 2.7 percent of men find the dentist disgusting. In a series of significant studies by Paul Ekman in the 1970s, it

4806-469: The emotion of disgust. The insula has been shown by several studies to be the main neural correlate of the feeling of disgust both in humans and in macaque monkeys. The insula is activated by unpleasant tastes, smells, and the visual recognition of disgust in conspecific organisms. The anterior insula is an olfactory and gustatory center that controls visceral sensations and the related autonomic responses. It also receives visual information from

4895-419: The feeling of wanting to throw up and uneasiness in the stomach. Finally, electrically stimulating the anterior insula through implanted electrodes produced sensations in the throat and mouth that were "difficult to stand". These findings demonstrate the role of the insula in transforming unpleasant sensory input into physiological reactions, and the associated feeling of disgust. Studies have demonstrated that

4984-438: The first half of the 20th century. Functional MRI experiments have revealed that the anterior insula in the brain is particularly active when experiencing disgust, when being exposed to offensive tastes, and when viewing facial expressions of disgust. The research has supported that there are independent neural systems in the brain, each handling a specific basic emotion. Specifically, f-MRI studies have provided evidence for

5073-471: The group. Arguably, there is a completely different construct of the emotion of disgust from the core disgust that can be seen in Ekman's basic emotions. Socio-moral disgust occurs when social or moral boundaries appear to be violated, the socio-moral aspect centers on human violations of the autonomy and dignity of others (e.g., racism, hypocrisy, disloyalty). Socio-moral disgust is different from core disgust. In

5162-458: The hormone progesterone . Scientists have conjectured that pregnancy requires the mother to "dial down" her immune system so that the developing embryo won't be attacked. To protect the mother, this lowered immune system is then compensated by a heightened sense of disgust. Because disgust is an emotion with physical responses to undesirable or dirty situations, studies have proven there are cardiovascular and respiratory changes while experiencing

5251-619: The hunter-scavenger lifestyle with a diet high in meat, they were never exposed to the new wave of pathogens that humans were exposed to, as well as the selection pressures that would come with this diet. Therefore, the disgust mechanisms in primates remained muted, only strong enough to address the distinct problems primates faced in their evolutionary history. Additionally, disgust-like behavior in great apes should be lower than in humans because they live in less hygienic conditions. Humans' clean habits over generations has reduced how frequently we are exposed to disgust elicitors and has likely expanded

5340-399: The idea or concept of cleanliness is made salient then people make less severe moral judgments of others. From this particular finding, it can be suggested that this reduces the experience of disgust and the ensuing threat of psychological impurity diminishes the apparent severity of moral transgressions. In one study, people of differing political persuasions were shown disgusting images in

5429-512: The inconsistent findings suggests that studying the effects of induced disgust on moral judgments alone is insufficient. Instead, the magnitude of experienced disgust appears to be a critical factor. Research by Białek et al. found that self-reported levels of disgust were more predictive of changes in moral judgments than the mere presence of disgust elicitors. This approach may provide a more nuanced understanding of how disgust influences moral decision-making. The effect also seems to be limited to

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5518-425: The insula and putamen and it was found that NK's overall response to disgust-inducing stimuli was significantly lower than that of controls. The patient showed a reduction in disgust-response on eight categories including food, animals, body products, envelope violation and death. Moreover, NK incorrectly categorized disgust facial expressions as anger. The results of this study support the idea that NK had damage to

5607-477: The insula is activated by disgusting stimuli, and that observing someone else's facial expression of disgust seems to automatically retrieve a neural representation of disgust. Furthermore, these findings emphasize the role of the insula in feelings of disgust. One particular neuropsychological study focused on patient NK who was diagnosed with a left hemisphere infarction involving the insula, internal capsule, putamen and globus pallidus. NK's neural damage included

5696-626: The insula is largely involved in racially biased perception of facial disgust through two distinct neural pathways: amygdala and insula, both areas of the brain that deal with emotion processing. It was found that racial prejudice elicited disgusted facial expressions. Disgust can also predict prejudice and discrimination towards individuals with obesity. Vertanian, Trewartha and Vanman (2016) showed participants photos of obese targets and non-obese targets performing everyday activities. They found that, compared to non-obese people, obese targets elicited more disgust, more negative attitudes and stereotypes, and

5785-444: The internet, as through Usenet or email or more recently through other social media . They can also be linked to viral online content. Some take the form of chain letters and spread by e-mail, directing the reader to share them or to meet a terrible fate, and following a recognizable outline of hook, threat, and finally request. Paranormal urban-legend stories usually involve someone encountering something supernatural, such as

5874-547: The latest threat. According to the "Lights Out" rumor , street gang members would drive without headlights until a compassionate motorist responded with the traditional flashing of headlights, whereupon a prospective new gang member would have to murder the citizen as a requirement of initiation . A fax retelling this legend received at the Nassau County, Florida , fire department was forwarded to police, and from there to all city departments. The Minister of Defence for Canada

5963-857: The lesson or moral generally remains the same. The term "urban legend", as used by folklorists, has appeared in print since at least 1968, when it was used by Richard Dorson . Jan Harold Brunvand , professor of English at the University of Utah , introduced the term to the general public in a series of popular books published beginning in 1981. Brunvand used his collection of legends, The Vanishing Hitchhiker: American Urban Legends & Their Meanings (1981) to make two points: first, that legends and folklore do not occur exclusively in so-called primitive or traditional societies, and second, that one could learn much about urban and modern culture by studying such tales. Many urban legends are framed as complete stories with plot and characters. The compelling appeal of

6052-650: The months leading up to its release. Between 1992 and 1998 The Guardian newspaper "Weekend" section published the illustrated "Urban Myths" column by Phil Healey and Rick Glanvill, with content taken from a series of four books: Urban Myths , The Return of Urban Myths , Urban Myths Unplugged , and Now! That's What I Call Urban Myths . The 1994 comics anthology the Big Book of Urban Legends , written by Robert Boyd, Jan Harold Brunvand , and Robert Loren Fleming , featured 200 urban legends, displayed as comics. The British writer Tony Barrell has explored urban legends in

6141-728: The more remarkable. SI addressed its own opinions on the alleged cover jinx in a 2002 issue that featured a black cat on its cover. While the list of examples of the so-called jinx may be extensive, some records contradict the existence of a curse. Urban legend Urban legends (sometimes modern legend , urban myth , or simply legend ) is a genre of folklore concerning stories about an unusual (usually scary) or humorous event that many people believe to be true but largely are not. These legends can be entertaining but often concern mysterious peril or troubling events, such as disappearances and strange objects or entities. Urban legends may confirm moral standards, reflect prejudices, or be

6230-413: The neural activity that would relate to our own experience of the same emotion. This points to the universality, as well as survival value of the emotion of disgust. At a very young age, children are able to identify different, basic facial emotions. If a parent makes a negative face and a positive emotional face toward two different toys, a child as young as five months would avoid the toy associated with

6319-404: The number 666 went viral on Facebook. California drought manipulation Disgust Disgust is one of the basic emotions of Robert Plutchik 's theory of emotions, and has been studied extensively by Paul Rozin . It invokes a characteristic facial expression, one of Paul Ekman 's six universal facial expressions of emotion. Unlike the emotions of fear , anger , and sadness , disgust

6408-465: The old Procter & Gamble symbol, supposedly an occult figure that gave panache to the brand. (If the thirteen stars in the symbol were connected a certain way, it would show three sixes in a row or looked at the 3 curls at the bottom they form the inverted 6s.) Similarly, a video of a Christian woman "exposing" Monster Energy for using the Hebrew letter vav ( ו ), forming the letter "M", to disguise

6497-455: The person just wrinkles one's nose without awareness that they are making a disgust expression. The mirror-neuron matching system found in monkeys and humans is a proposed explanation for such recognition, and shows that our internal representation of actions is triggered during the observation of another's actions. It has been demonstrated that a similar mechanism may apply to emotions. Seeing someone else's facial emotional expressions triggers

6586-412: The pure state-of-being. When this state-of-being is violated, the vegetarian feels disgust. Furthermore, disgust appears to be uniquely associated with purity judgments, not with what is just/unjust or what is harmful/caregiving, while other emotions such as fear, anger, and sadness are "unrelated to moral judgments of purity". Some other research suggests that an individual's level of disgust sensitivity

6675-400: The relationship between dysfunctional thoughts and depression. The emotion of disgust may have an important role in understanding the neurobiology of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), particularly in those with contamination preoccupations. In a study by Shapira & colleagues (2003), eight OCD subjects with contamination preoccupations and eight healthy volunteers viewed pictures from

6764-422: The right insula. In contrast, the two groups were similar in their response to threat-inducing pictures, with no significant group differences at any site. With respect to studies using rats , prior research of signs of a conditioned disgust response have been experimentally verified by Grill and Norgren (1978) who developed a systematic test to assess palatability . The Taste Reactivity (TR) test has thus become

6853-401: The same kinds of stimuli, indicating that the underlying mechanism for this behavior is similar to ours. Chimpanzees generally avoid food contaminated with dirt or feces, but most individuals still consume these kinds of contaminated foods. While chimps do show a preference for food items with lower contamination risk, they do not avoid risk altogether, as most humans would. This may be due to

6942-455: The sense that they can all potentially transmit infections, and are the most common referenced elicitors of disgust cross-culturally. Because of this, disgust is believed to have evolved as a component of a behavioral immune system in which the body attempts to avoid disease-carrying pathogens in preference to fighting them after they have entered the body. This behavioral immune system has been found to make sweeping generalizations because "it

7031-399: The severity of moral judgments. Later studies found the reverse effect, and some studies have suggested that the average effect of disgust on moral judgments is small or absent. Potentially reconciling these effects, one study indicated that the direction and size of the effect of disgust stimuli on moral judgment depends upon an individual's sensitivity to disgust. One effort to reconcile

7120-479: The smells of biological contaminants, but only show a weak tendency to move away from these odors, possibly because olfactory stimuli are not enough to give chimps a high enough threat level to move away. Chimpanzees physically recoil when presented with food items on soft, moist substrates, possibly because in nature, moisture, softness, and warmth are characteristics needed to grow pathogens. These responses are functionally similar to what humans' responses would be to

7209-706: The stimuli of morally repulsive images in much the same way that they would block out the stimuli of a physically repulsive image. When people see an image of abuse, rape, or murder, they often avert their gazes to inhibit the incoming visual stimuli from the photograph just like they would if they saw a decomposing body. Moral judgments can be traditionally defined or thought of as directed by standards such as impartiality and respect towards others for their well-being. From more recent theoretical and empirical information, it can be suggested that morality may be guided by basic affective processes. Jonathan Haidt proposed that one's instant judgments about morality are experienced as

7298-453: The stimuli that would elicit disgust reactions in us. Great apes on the other hand are constantly exposed to disgust elicitors, leading to habituation and a muted form of disgust compared to modern humans. Although disgust was first thought to be a motivation for humans to only physical contaminants, it has since been applied to moral and social moral contaminants as well. The similarities between these types of disgust can especially be seen in

7387-522: The story a serial killer deliberately hiding in the back seat of a car. Another such example since the 1970s has been the recurring rumor that the Procter & Gamble Company was associated with Satan-worshippers because of details within its 19th-century "57" trademark. The legend interrupted the company's business to the point that it stopped using the trademark. The earliest term by which these narratives were known, "urban belief tales", highlights what

7476-406: The time to stop and wipe it off even if it means missing out on food. Unlike in humans, the avoidance of social contamination (ex: staying away from sick conspecifics) is rare in great apes. Instead, great apes often groom sick conspecifics or just treat them with indifference. Additionally, great apes treat products of a sick conspecific such as mucus or blood with interest or indifference. This

7565-423: The way people react to the contaminants. For example, if someone stumbles upon a pool of vomit, they will do whatever possible to place as much distance between themselves and the vomit as possible, which can include pinching the nose, closing the eyes, or running away. Likewise, when a group experiences someone who cheats, rapes, or murders another member of the group, its reaction is to shun or expel that person from

7654-430: Was discovered that facial expressions of emotion are not culturally determined , but universal across human cultures and thus likely to be biological in origin. The facial expression of disgust was found to be one of these facial expressions. This characteristic facial expression includes slightly narrowed brows, waving the hand back and forth although different elicitors may produce different forms of this expression. It

7743-408: Was found that the facial expression of disgust is readily recognizable across cultures. This facial expression is also produced in blind individuals and is correctly interpreted by deaf individuals. This evidence indicates an innate biological basis for the expression and recognition of disgust. The recognition of disgust is also important among species as it has been found that when an individual sees

7832-419: Was taken in by it also; he forwarded an urgent security warning to all Ontario Members of Parliament. Urban legends typically include common elements: the tale is retold on behalf of the original witness or participant; dire warnings are often given for those who might not heed the advice or lesson contained therein (a typical element of many e-mail phishing scams); and the tale is often touted as "something

7921-552: Was then thought of as a key property: their tellers regarded the stories as true accounts, and the device of the FOAF (acronym for "Friend of a Friend" invented by English writer and folklorist Rodney Dale in 1976) was a spurious but significant effort at authentication. The coinage leads in turn to the terms "FOAFlore" and "FOAFtale". While at least one classic legend, the "Death Car", has been shown to have some basis in fact, folklorists have an interest in debunking those narratives only to

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