Our dog, Ruby, has been having intestinal problems, and my husband, a veterinarian, has been trying to ascertain what may be wrong with her. He has altered her diet, taken x-rays, dewormed her, visited a specialist, done an ultrasound on her belly, and now he’s sending off a stool sample to find out if there’s occult blood in it. This past weekend he gathered the sample, triple bagged it, put it in a box, and then placed the box in our refrigerator (since it must remain refrigerated until it can be overnighted to the lab). The box lies next to the soy milk.

I am completely grossed out that there’s poop in our refrigerator. My husband is trying to help me be rational about the whole thing, but I can’t help balking when I open the door and see the box. And the soy milk container (aseptic) seems entirely too close to the box. So, here’s the thing: while my husband is right that it’s irrational to worry about contamination from a triple-bagged and boxed bit of dog doo in my refrigerator, it’s not at all irrational to be disgusted by poop. We evolved to feel disgust at certain things, because such disgust lent evolutionary advantages. If you weren’t disgusted by feces you might be more likely to be exposed to organisms that could harm you.

And so it goes with lots of things that are generally evolutionarily beneficial but specifically irrational, as we try to create a sustainable, peaceful world. For example, we may have evolved to fear strangers and those who are “outside” our clan or tribe, but in today’s world, it is morally reprehensible to turn inner fears of difference into policy. And although we have come a long way toward repealing prejudicial laws in many parts of the world, bigotry is still pervasive, and genocide still happens on every continent (except Antarctica, which has no native human population). Our fear of others in the U.S. leads us to spend the lion’s share of our federal dollars on defense, even though we might protect our citizens to a far greater degree by spending more on education, preventive health care, and clean energy, water, land, and air. Is our focus on military spending rational? Many would argue it is, but I believe that the degree to which we fund our military has become an irrational response to a rational concern.

Teasing apart feelings, tendencies, and behaviors that stem from our evolutionary history from misguided, irrational, and unhealthy and unsustainable choices within society is quite challenging, but in order to create peaceful and wise social systems that serve 6.5 billion people on a planet that must sustain countless species and biological systems we must be very committed and work diligently at this important task. Our fears and reactivity, which have evolved over nearly 1 million years, need to be acknowledged for the inherent safety they often preserve, while still being questioned to ensure that they are valid, rational, and ultimately healthful. Often they are not.

I always come back to the question: “What does the most good and the least harm?” If we bring this question, broadly and comprehensively, into political, economic, health, food, defense, transportation, energy, educational, and other arenas, we may find that we are able to side-step myopic responses because we are not letting fears and reactivity determine our future course.

Now, here’s my multiple choice question for you. Consider it a test of your rational mind overcoming your irrational fears:

Knowing that there is dog poop in my refrigerator are you:

a. Disgusted, like I am, but able to acknowledge that there is minimal potential for harm.
b. Disgusted, convinced that this is highly unhygienic, and certain you would never accept an invitation to my house for dinner.
c. Not disgusted and curious why I’d bother to blog about this at all.
d. None of the above and feeling this way:___________________________________.

I welcome your responses!

Zoe Weil
Author of Most Good, Least Harm

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