Free (ADE-DRM ePub) Don't Look, Don't Touch, Don't Eat [Biology & Evo Psych & Anthro]

[ATDrake]

Don’t Look, Don't Touch, Don't Eat: The Science Behind Revulsion by Valerie Curtis, director of the Hygiene Centre at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (Wikipedia), is her layperson-friendly guide to the biology and psychology (evolutionary and otherwise) and ensuing sociocultural attitudes related to Exactly What It Says In The Title, free courtesy of the University of Chicago Press.

This is really very nifty, and not only goes over the actual scientific roots of our behaviours, but also does some transferative extrapolation on how our ingrained disgust reactions are used to fuel and justify cultural prejudices and discrimination, and stuff we can do to combat those tendencies. Also, better home hygiene tips, too.

This is their selected free ebook of the month for May.

Currently free through May 31st @ the University of Chicago Press' giveaway page (ADE-DRM ePub in return for your valid email address).

And this has been the (late!) selected 3rd (non-repeat… ish) free ebook thread of the day.

Because not only another marvelous quality non-fiction title given to us courtesy of UCP, but also a really interesting looking science-y one delving into the reasons why we behave the way we do, and offered in ePub this time around, as well, which makes it an automatic hat-trick of edutainment awesome.

Enjoy!

Description
Every flu season, sneezing, coughing, and graphic throat-clearing become the day-to-day background noise in every workplace. And coworkers tend to move as far—and as quickly—away from the source of these bodily eruptions as possible. Instinctively, humans recoil from objects that they view as dirty and even struggle to overcome feelings of discomfort once the offending item has been cleaned. These reactions are universal, and although there are cultural and individual variations, by and large we are all disgusted by the same things.

In Don’t Look, Don’t Touch, Don’t Eat, Valerie Curtis builds a strong case for disgust as a “shadow emotion”—less familiar than love or sadness, it nevertheless affects our day-to-day lives. In disgust, biological and sociocultural factors meet in dynamic ways to shape human and animal behavior. Curtis traces the evolutionary role of disgust in disease prevention and hygiene, but also shows that it is much more than a biological mechanism. Human social norms, from good manners to moral behavior, are deeply rooted in our sense of disgust. The disgust reaction informs both our political opinions and our darkest tendencies, such as misogyny and racism. Through a deeper understanding of disgust, Curtis argues, we can take this ubiquitous human emotion and direct it towards useful ends, from combating prejudice to reducing disease in the poorest parts of the world by raising standards of hygiene.

Don’t Look, Don’t Touch, Don’t Eat reveals disgust to be a vital part of what it means to be human and explores how this deep-seated response can be harnessed to improve the world.

[ATDrake]

Just a reminder that this is the last day to get this, if you missed it earlier.