Ever wonder exactly why the creatures in Silent Hill are so revolting or the squishing in Dead Space is so repulsive? A crop of new studies on the science of disgust are bubbling up, according to the Times. Valerie Curtis, a self-described “disgustologist” from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine goes on:

“It’s in our everyday life. It determines our hygiene behaviors. It determines how close we get to people. It determines who we’re going to kiss, who we’re going to mate with, who we’re going to sit next to. It determines the people that we shun, and that is something that we do a lot of.”

And it certainly plays a huge role in games! Think about how often you’re reviled by the images in on-screen and how game designers play those up to maximum effect. One theory suggests animal origins:

[They] developed the idea that disgust was then elaborated by cultural evolution to include other forms, one of them based in a dislike for reminders of the animal nature of humans. Sex, death, feces and bad food all smacked of animality.

Gross.

-Jamin Warren

[via NY Times]