Abstract
The emotion of disgust is suggested to be an adaptation that evolved to keep us away from sources of infection. Therefore, individuals from populations with greater pathogen stress should have a greater disgust sensitivity. However, current evidence for a positive relationship between disgust sensitivity and the intensity of infectious diseases in the environment is limited. We tested whether disgust and contamination sensitivity changed in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Disgust was assessed in 984 women in 2017 (before pandemic) and 633 women in 2020 (during pandemic) by a set of photographs depicting sources of infection and Pathogen and Moral of Three-Domain Disgust Scale. Further, contamination sensitivity among participants in two waves was measured by Contamination Obsessions and Washing Compulsions Subscale of Padua Inventory. State anxiety was measured with the Polish adaptation of the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) only during the second wave of data collection. Women from the COVID-19 pandemic group assessed the photographs depicting sources of infection as more disgusting, scoring higher on Padua Inventory, but lower on Moral Disgust Domain as compared to women from before the pandemic. In addition, anxiety levels during pandemic positively correlated with scores from Pathogen Disgust Domain, Padua Inventory, and the ratings of the photographs. The participants of the study scored higher in state anxiety than the norms determined for the Polish population. Summarizing, we present evidence for differences in individual levels of disgust sensitivity in relation to pathogen stress, supporting the idea that disgust evolved to serve as protection from pathogens.
Highlights
Disgust, a universal human emotion, is elicited by a number of factors, including the sources of potential pathogens, such as bodily fluids, people with visible symptoms of disease, dirty environments, rotting food, certain animals, or the violations of moral norms, and antisocial behaviors, including cheating and stealing (Darwin, 1872; Brown, 1991; Curtis and Biran, 2001)
Since the groups of women slightly differed in age, all the differences in disgust sensitivity between them were subjected to analyses of covariance (ANCOVA), with age as a potential confounder
As compared to the participants from the pre-pandemic group the women who took part in the study during the COVID-19 pandemic assessed the photographs depicting the sources of infection as more disgusting [F(1,1537) = 433.82, p < 0.001], and scored higher on the Contamination Obsessions and Washing Compulsions Subscale of Padua Inventory [F(1,1576) = 38.42, p < 0.001]
Summary
A universal human emotion, is elicited by a number of factors, including the sources of potential pathogens, such as bodily fluids, people with visible symptoms of disease, dirty environments, rotting food, certain animals, or the violations of moral norms, and antisocial behaviors, including cheating and stealing (Darwin, 1872; Brown, 1991; Curtis and Biran, 2001). Pathogen disgust motivates the avoidance of infectious pathogens and is the first line of defense against pathogens (Wicker et al, 2003; Oaten et al, 2009; Stevenson et al, 2009, 2011; Tybur et al, 2009; Curtis et al, 2011). On the other hand, serves the purpose of avoiding social norm violations (Tybur et al, 2009; Curtis, 2011).
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