Abstract
Disgust appears to play a role in certain animal fears and not others. The present study investigated the extent to which pictorial and live stimuli arouse fear and disgust responses during a brief encounter with spider-relevant and dog-relevant stimuli and whether individual differences in disgust sensitivity and fear of contamination are responsible for differential responding. Participants with a high fear of spiders (n=20) or dogs (n=19) completed measures of spider fear, dog fear, disgust sensitivity, contamination fear, and trait anxiety, and four behavioural approach tasks. Results suggest that pictorial stimuli may be effective for eliciting fear and disgust response for individuals with a high fear of spiders but not individuals with a high fear of dogs. Individual differences in disgust-relevant factors were not responsible for these differences. The results may inform the use of pictorial stimuli in the treatment of specific phobias.
Highlights
The results of the present study suggest that participants with a high fear of spiders and participants with a high fear of dogs may differ in terms of the types of emotional responses they experience when confronting their feared stimulus
Given that (1) there were no discrepancies between participants with a high fear of spiders and participants with a high fear of dogs on measures assessing disgust-relevant factors and (2) fear of contamination was found to be correlated with dog fear, these results suggest that dogs may not be best conceptualized as predatory animals; these results require replication with a larger sample
Given that the results of the present study indicated that participants with a high fear of spiders experienced more pronounced fear and disgust responses after they confronted spider-relevant stimuli, these results support the idea that both emotions may play an important role in spider fear
Summary
Present Study The aims of the present study were two-fold. The primary goal of the present study was to test whether there are differences across fearful animals (i.e. , dog versus spider) with respect to the extent to which different stimulus formats are able to activate an emotional reaction during a brief encounter with spider-relevant and dog-relevant stiml:lli. The primary goal of the present study was to test whether there are differences across fearful animals Dog versus spider) with respect to the extent to which different stimulus formats are able to activate an emotional reaction during a brief encounter with spider-relevant and dog-relevant stiml:lli. The second goal of the present study was to investigate the extent to which individual differences in disgust-relevant factors are responsible for the differential responding that occurred between participants with a high fear of spiders and participants with a high fear of dogs. Purpose of the Study: The purpose of this study is to investigate the extent to which disgust sensitivity and fear of contamination influence how an individual responds to a picture of a dog, a picture of a spider, a live dog, and a live spider
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