The psychology that keeps a parent happy when changing a nappy

THE secret of how parents can change their children’s nappies without wincing has finally been identified: people are less disgusted by the bodily secretions of those close to them. Research by the University of Sussex and St Andrews University shows that people’s sense of abhorrence is also driven by social information.

Anne Templeton a doctoral student at Sussex, said: “This helps explain, for in- stance, why we experience less disgust when our own children are sick on us or when we change their nappies.”

Psychologists found that a person’s “core” disgust response is reduced if the source is within their own social group. The team also found comparable reactions of students to sweaty T-shirts bearing a logo from their own university against one from a separate institution. Participants walked more slowly to wash their hands after handling the familiar T-shirt and pumped the soap dispenser fewer times.

The research was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Prof Stephen Reicher, of the University of St Andrews, the lead author, added: “Dis- gust is an emotion which plays a fundamental role in keeping us distant from others and from things that might harm us such as infection.

“But, by the same token, it can stop people coming together when that is necessary.”