There’s a scene in Pixar’s Inside Out (2015) that gives a physical form to disgust. Throughout the movie, a young girl’s emotions are shown as characters inside her brain. At one point her father attempts to feed her broccoli, which the character of Disgust deems dangerous, instructing the girl’s brain to get rid of it. The young girl flicks the food away. “Well, I just saved our lives. You’re welcome,” Disgust gloats.

Disgust (the real life emotion) is a feeling of revulsion or disapproval triggered by something unpleasant.¹ Throughout history, the feeling has been associated with perceived danger—whether it’s safe to eat a moldy piece of meat, for example. In late 2021, The New York Times ran a longform on the topic with the grand but perhaps not totally misplaced ti...