Abstract
SYNOPSIS Objective. As child’s immune system is underdeveloped, compensatory mechanisms are needed to protect a child from pathogen threat. Increased disgust sensitivity in a child’s parent could be such a mechanism, and this study tested if parents are more disgust sensitive than non-parents (parental effect) and if parents declare higher disgust sensitivity when their offspring is nearby (child presence effect). Design. 995 adult men and women, who were either parents or childless, completed the pathogen subscale of the Three Domains of Disgust Scale and the Food Disgust Scale. Parents either were or were not accompanied by their offspring during responding. Results. Women are more disgust sensitive than men, and parents less sensitive to generalized pathogen disgust than childless individuals. Conclusions. This effect emerges in an opposite direction to what parental effects would suggest. No support for a child presence effect emerged.
Published Version
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