Trump supporters' disgust for human body odor may explain their desire for authoritarian rulers: study

A new study from researchers in Europe suggests that some voters may be attracted to backing President Donald Trump because they cannot stand the smell of their fellow humans' body odor.

Phys.org reports that a new study published in the Royal Society Open Science journal that claims to show a link between people who show distaste for body odor and a tendency to back authoritarian rulers.

Stockholm University's Jonas Olofsson, one of the study's authors, explains that people who are repulsed by body odor are more likely to want people from different races and ethnicities to be kept out of their neighborhoods -- which, in turn, leads them to support politicians who take hard-line stances against immigrants and ethnic minorities.

"There was a solid connection between how strongly someone was disgusted by smells and their desire to have a dictator-like leader who can suppress radical protest movements and ensure that different groups 'stay in their places,'" says Olofsson.

Additionally, Olofsson says that samples of American voters in the study show a correlation between dislike of body odor and support for President Donald Trump.

"It showed that people who were more disgusted by smells were also more likely to vote for Donald Trump than those who were less sensitive," he says. "We thought that was interesting, because Donald Trump talks frequently about how different people disgust him. He thinks that women are disgusting and that immigrants spread disease, and it comes up often in his rhetoric."

The entire study is available to read at this link.