Disgust and the Treatment of Homelessness

Your biology is secretly sabotaging how you treat homeless people. There is a massive

paradox where the majority of people support funding aid for the homeless, yet those same people

support laws that arrest them for sleeping in public. Researchers finally found the link,

and it is not hatred, it is disgust. We have an evolutionary behavioral immune system designed

to keep us away from pathogens. When people see hygiene issues on the street,

this system kicks in and demands physical distance. Basically, your brain is not

trying to be cruel, it is just terrified of germs, and that primitive fear is shaping

modern laws.