Have you ever wondered why you had a stronger avert reaction when confronted to a snake, but less intense when a speeding car passes you by? The car is logically more dangerous, but your fright is far less than when you see a reptile in the wild. How about finding quite normal a scene of open-heart surgery in a hospital TV series, but totally revulsing the sight of an anus transplant in a documentary?

Researchers at the University of California in Los Angeles may have an answer to these questions, along with an insight of how xenophobia and racism arose. The roots of these sometimes totally irrational feelings lie in the evolution of certain emotions that helped our ancestors survive, but which have for some become inadequate in our current world.

Source: UCLA News