Title.
In: Biology
Much of what we consider “disgusting” is rot, contamination, disease, etc. If diseased/contaminated stuff is around, it is possible we have ingested some of it and put ourselves at risk. Might be best for our long-run survival to expel whatever we can and avoid sickness.
This is part of the reason that some people get an urge to vomit when they see others vomiting. If the other person has eaten something dangerous, it’s possible they themselves have too.
What is the purpose of vomiting? To expel potential poisons or materials that carry disease that you may have ingested. Things that trigger nausea are things that are likely to involve tainted food, disease risk, or experiences that come with being poisoned.
For example, motion sickness occurs because there are some toxins that cause your inner ear to feel like you’re moving even when you’re not; so when your eyes and your inner ear disagree about whether or not you’re moving, your body decides that you might have been poisoned, and throws up just in case.
Seeing other people throw up makes you want to throw up because we’re communal animals and there’s a decent chance you ate the same thing those around you did; if they’re throwing up, maybe you should too.
Rotting food? Probably contains disease.
Fresh poop? The same.
Etc. etc.
Sometimes we might throw up from stuff that doesn’t seem immediately connected to that. Such situations might have a direct connection to eating bad stuff that just isn’t obvious at the time, or it might come from your mind somehow subconsciously connecting stuff to bad things (for example, a big ol’ ball of earthworms is completely innocuous, but it might remind you of maggots writhing inside a dead animal, thus triggering the vomit reflex).
Vomiting is a pretty safe and effective way to get dangerous/unhealthy things out of our body before they cause more harm.
Things that are disgusting enough to make us vomit are typically the same things that would make us sick if we were to eat them. Sure, there’s exceptions like stinky cheese and fermented fish, but the rule generally holds true.
The nausea/vomiting we experience is a really good way to make us avoid eating those things in the first place, which means we don’t get sick, and that’s a pretty solid advantage when it comes to evolution.
Very good episode of the podcast “Ologies with Allie Ward” which gets into all the details on this: https://open.spotify.com/episode/2BuVtliHyssIcsxq8mLsne?si=HG61J-39RM6IQqiuAQyiwQ
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