(056) The Association Between Disgust Sensitivity, Sexual Desire, Relationship Satisfaction in Finland

Abstract

Abstract Introduction Disgust is a basic emotion directed towards certain objects to avoid harm (Angyal, 1941), mainly pathogens. Research, however, has proposed a heterogeneity of disgust beyond pathogen avoidance to generate the functional model, which proposed the functionally distinct domains of disgust: moral, pathogen, and sexual. This model proposes that sexual disgust is an avoidance of sexual contact with unfit partners that may yield unfit offspring (Tybur & de Vries, 2013), this may be due to other anxiety related disorders (Davey, 2011 and Troop et al., 2002) Objective This study focuses on the association between disgust sensitivity with sexual desire, and relationships satisfaction. Hypothesis: elevated levels of disgust sensitivity are negatively associated with sexual desire and relationship satisfaction. Methods Invitation letters were sent out to the registered Finnish population in the Finnish Central Population Registry to participate in a(n) (online) survey, 9,319 individuals responded to the invitation and completed the survey and agreed to participate in the research. The tools used in this study were Perceived Relationship Quality Component (PRQC), Sexual Desire Inventory (SDI), and the Three-Disgust Domain Scale (TDDS). Results The results indicate that the sexual desire and sexual disgust sensitivity, are negatively correlated, the relationship satisfaction correlations are positive except the men pathogen disgust which is a negative correlation between pathogen disgust sensitivity and relationship satisfaction. The correlation between the study variables indicated that among men and women sexual disgust is negatively correlated with sexual desire, and the correlation of relationship satisfaction and sexual disgust was positively correlated. Conclusions The results show the negative association of sexual disgust with sexual desire, but there is a positive relationship between sexual disgust and relationship satisfaction. Disclosure No.