sterilized cockroaches vs. orange juice

That's what I thought too!

There is a scientist, Paul Rozin, studying the psychology of disgust. This little experiment, involving dipping a sterilized cockroach into a glass of orange juice then soliciting someone to take a drink from the glass (no one would take him up on it), was intended to demonstrate the universal concept of touch transference:

"It's a fancy term for cooties. If something repulsive touches something benign, the latter, even if it's physically unchanged, becomes "infected."

Taking this concept further are two researchers who teach marketing at Duke and Arizona State University, Andrea Morales and Gavan Fitzsimons. In a series of studies resulting in an article in this month's Journal of marketing research, "the researchers found not only that some products--trash bags, diapers, kitty litter, tampons--evoke a subconscious feeling of disgust even before they're used for their ultimate messy purposes, but they can also transfer their general ickiness to anything they come in contact with."

Enjoy your lunch today! ;-)

¡Adiós!

htw