Moral Disgust Research Articles

Human-to-Human Contagion of Moral Disgust Based on Physical Contact

Human-to-Human Contagion of Moral Disgust Based on Physical Contact

Disgust in the mating context – choosing the best and the least bad self-presentation option in a date simulation game

In order to achieve interpersonal goals, people manipulate their self-image: they manifest their most favourable traits and avoid exhibiting the most aversive ones. Disgust is one of the most powerful turn-offs in a mating context. Here, we explored which disgust domain −pathogen, sexual, or moral − is considered the most damaging for self-image. We also revisited the importance of various positive traits in a potential partner. The participants (N = 1,017) played a date-simulation game. They chose which one of five positive characteristics, and which one of three disgust norm transgressions they want to manifest. We analysed the influence of one’s biological sex, sexual orientation, and culture on self-presentation during a date.Women more often manifested morally disgusting behaviours and artistic abilities than men, while men more often manifested pathogenically disgusting behaviours and kindness. Homosexual orientation predicted lower frequency of admitting to moral disgust transgressions, and higher frequency of exhibiting artistic abilities.

The sense of responsibility and bystanders’ prosocial behavior in cyberbullying: The mediating role of compassion and the moderating roles of moral outrage and moral disgust

The sense of responsibility can play an important role in the behavior of college students involved in cyberbullying incidents. Research on the relationship between the sense of responsibility and bystander behavior in cyberbullying is limited. This study examined the relationship between the sense of responsibility and prosocial cyberbystander behavior in cyberbullying, focusing on investigating compassion as a mediator and moral emotions (i.e., moral outrage and moral disgust) as a moderator in this relation. A total of 1,114 Chinese college students (35.4% female), aged from 18 to 23 years (M = 19.55, SD = 1.05), completed an online questionnaire. Results showed that compassion played a partial mediating role in the relationship between the sense of responsibility and prosocial cyberbystander behavior. Moral outrage moderated the relationship between the sense of responsibility and prosocial cyberbystander behavior. Specifically, among participants with higher levels of moral outrage, the relationships between the sense of responsibility and prosocial cyberbystander behavior became much weaker. These results provide a new direction for promoting prosocial cyberbystander behavior.

#Disgusted: Identifying potential sub-factors of Moral Disgust through Reflexive Thematic Analysis of Tweets

Social media provides an untapped resource for exploring Moral Disgust. We therefore drew on ‘tweets’ about Moral Disgust (k=526) to better conceptualise the situations, people, and concepts users found Disgusting. Our Reflexive Thematic Analysis identified two themes and accompanying subthemes: Hierarchical Disgust and Third-Party Disgust. Hierarchical Disgust was constructed from expressions of Disgust directed to power structures, abuses of power, and leaders, whereas Third-Party Disgust comprised expressions directed at negative outcomes for others, often in the form of discrimination or harm. Both themes served as a form of group protection through out-group distancing and normative in-group policing. Importantly, this research extends classic Disgust literature (e.g. Tybur et al., 2013), presenting a novel approach to naturalistic data collection and providing future researchers with an approach to study other emotions, beliefs, and subjects that are expressed online.

Predictors and memory consequences of dating decisions in a dating app-analogue study.

With the rise of dating apps, people have access to a vast pool of potential partners at their fingertips. The present study examined how various factors would predict an individual's dating decisions in a dating app-analogue study. Participants (N = 269) first completed some trait measures and then a mock-dating task in which they judged the attractiveness of a series of targets and then decided whether to match with the target or not. Their memories for the targets were tested on the second day. People who were more (vs. less) short-term oriented were more likely to match with short-term-oriented targets. Moral disgust and sexual disgust negatively predicted the matching with short-term-oriented targets. Contrary to our hypothesis, we did not find support that people with higher (vs. lower) pathogen disgust sensitivity would selectively match with more attractive targets. Exploratory analyses showed that people who were more (vs. less) short-term oriented, more (vs. less) sexually attractive, or had higher (v. lower) mate value, were more likely to match with targets they considered as attractive. Finally, people have better memories of the faces they chose to match than to not match. Implications for mating research and limitations are discussed.

Bad People Alert: The Expression of Disgust Signals Its Target’s Bad Moral Character

Expressions of moral disgust and anger in social situations signal the target’s moral failure to third-party observers. But little is known about whether the two emotions have different communication functions in sociomoral contexts. Based on the literature about social factors that actually distinguish between anger and disgust, two experiments investigated the inferences people make about the social target of an angry or disgusted expression. Primarily, we tested whether disgusted expressions aimed at a person convey the inference that the person has a bad moral character, more than angry expressions which communicate that the person did a thing with bad consequences. Together, these two experiments shed light on the functional differences between angry and disgusted expressions, as much as they co-occur in everyday life.

From London Bridge to the Finsbury Park Mosque

The former Twitter (now called ‘X’) is a social media platform characterized by an intense exchange of posts by users on political themes. These posts can indicate the evolution of a social phenomenon around a pivotal event. The overarching theme of this paper is to observe and examine the posts of Twitter users following the London Bridge terror attack on June 3rd, 2017, and following another attack against the Finsbury Park Mosque on June 19th of the same month. By means of a content analysis of a robust database of posts collected from the Twitter platform I was able to observe the reactions of radical right users during the attacks and reflect upon how hate was played out in terms of language and emotions. Despite the inevitable violence of these attacks, I detected the presence of humour in tweets as well as remarks that were predictably characterized by both physical and moral disgust. All tweets examined displayed at least one of Haidt’s Moral Foundations. My hypothesis is that humour too is a moral phenomenon which can exaggerate human behaviour.

Long-term disgust habituation with limited generalisation in care home workers.

Countless workers handle bodily effluvia and body envelope violations every working day, and consequentially face deeply unpleasant levels of disgust. Understanding if and how they adapt can help inform policies to improve worker satisfaction and reduce staff turnover. So far, limited evidence exist that self-reported disgust is reduced (or lower to begin with) among those employed in high-disgust environments. However, it is unclear if this is due to demand effects or translates into real behavioural changes. Here, we tested healthcare assistants (N = 32) employed in UK care homes and a control sample (N = 50). We replicated reduced self-reported pathogen disgust sensitivity in healthcare workers compared to controls. We also found it negatively correlated with career duration, suggesting long-term habituation. Furthermore, we found that healthcare assistants showed no behavioural disgust avoidance on a web-based preferential looking task (equivalent to eye tracking). Surprisingly, this extended to disgust elicitors found outside care homes, suggesting generalisation of disgust habituation. While we found no difference between bodily effluvia (core disgust) and body envelope violations (gore disgust), generalisation did not extend to other domains: self-reported sexual and moral disgust sensitivity were not different between healthcare assistants and the control group, nor was there a correlation with career duration. In sum, our work confirms that people in high-frequency disgust employment are less sensitive to pathogen disgust. Crucially, we provide preliminary evidence that this is due to a process of long-term habituation with generalisation to disgust-elicitors within the pathogen domain, but not beyond it.

Disgust as a basic, sexual, and moral emotion.

Disgust is a basic emotion that increases the organism's survival success by preventing the transfer of pathogens. In this regard, it directs cognitive processes and motivates avoidance behaviors that prevent pathogens from entering the body. Moreover, disgust has many specific characteristics that distinguish it from other basic emotions. Firstly, unlike other basic emotions, it contaminates neutral objects around it and causes difficult-to-change learning. Another specific characteristic of disgust is that it depends on ideational processes. Objects, situations, and behaviors that do not contain pathogens can also cause disgust. In this regard, disgust appears not only as a basic emotion but also as different adaptations in different fields. In this context, two distinct adaptations of disgust stand out: sexual and moral disgust. These two adaptations of disgust benefit from disgust-related behaviors and motivations in different ways. Sexual disgust works as a gene protection mechanism, while moral disgust helps maintain social rules. The specific characteristics of disgust and its effects on cognitive processes such as attention and memory interact. In conclusion, the multifaceted structure of disgust shows that it needs to be studied more in the subfields of psychology. (Strohminger, Philos Compass 9:478-493, 2014) defines disgust as a psychological nebula that needs to be discovered. However, it is observed that disgust has not been adequately addressed. This review aims to comprehensively explore unique characteristics and diverse aspects of disgust, shedding light on its significance from various perspectives. This study underscores the broader understanding of disgust and its pivotal role in psychological research.

Linking disgust and misophonia: The role of mental contamination

Aim of the studyIn the current study, the authors sought to examine whether the link between moral and sexual disgust and misophonia is mediated by mental contamination.Subject or material and methodsAn internationally diverse sample of 283 adults (193 females, 76 males, and 14 non-binary individuals) ranging in age from 18 to 60 years old was recruited from online social media platforms and survey recruitment sites. The sample completed an online battery of scales that consisted of the New York Misophonia Scale, State Metal Contamination Scale, and the Three-Domain Disgust Scale. The hypotheses were evaluated using a series of mediations. performed using the PROCESS add-on in SPSS.ResultsCorrelations were found between emotional and aggressive-avoidant reactions in misophonia, mental contamination, pathogen disgust, and sexual disgust. Moral disgust and non-aggressive reactions in misophonia failed to correlate significantly with any of the other constructs. Sexual disgust had direct and indirect effects while pathogen disgust had only direct effects on aspects of misophonia.DiscussionThese findings partially support our hypothesis that mental contamination mediates the link between disgust propensity and misophonia while also confirming that pathogen-based disgust is not associated with mental contamination.ConclusionsFindings imply that misophonia is distinct from obsessive-compulsive disorder. Further research into the conceptualization of moral disgust is warranted.

Are Members of Political Out-Groups More Morally or Physically Disgusting?

Recent research has found that Americans are disgusted by anonymous members of their political out-group. Determining whether the disgust elicited by political out-group members is more physical or moral may contribute to the understating of what enables its elicitation and regulation. Building on research showing the experience of moral disgust involves relatively abstract construal and the experience of physical disgust involves relatively concrete construal, we predicted that disgust experienced toward political out-group members is more moral than physical. Two preregistered experiments (total N=854) found that (a) the effect of level of construal on the intensity of disgust from political out-group members is more similar to the effect of level of construal on moral disgust than on physical disgust, and (b) the appraisal underlying disgust from political out-group members involves more abstract than concrete construal, similar to moral disgust. We discuss implications of these findings for intergroup relations and emotion regulation.

Observing psychopathy promptly, reliably, and validly: Development and validation of the Short Psychopathy Rating Scale (SPRS)

The goal of the present research was to develop a short, valid, and reliable rating measure of psychopathy: the Short Psychopathy Rating Scale (SPRS). To achieve this, we conducted three studies. In Study 1 (N = 485), the participants from a community sample rated persons they know well on items that assess psychopathy. By conducting the Factor Analysis, we selected the items that depict three psychopathy characteristics: Deceitfulness, Emotional coldness, and Recklessness. In Study 2, the raters provided estimates of these three psychopathy measures on the target individuals (N = 429). Furthermore, we collected self-report measures from the target persons, which were used to establish the validity of the new psychopathy scales: Psychopathic Personality Traits Scale (PPTS), short version of the Triarchic Personality Measure (TriPM), impulsiveness, physical aggression, Positive self-view, short-term mating, moral disgust, and substance use. Expected latent structure was obtained from this data as well; furthermore, psychopathy scales had high reliabilities. Finally, the correlations with self-report measures provided evidence for convergent and divergent validity of SPRS scales. In study 3 we obtained positive associations between SPRS scales, aggression, and risk assessment regarding criminal behavior in a sample of prisoners (N = 290) thus confirming the validity of the scales in a forensic context. In sum, the results of the present research showed evidence that SPRS is a valid and reliable measure of psychopathy which can be easily administered and informants can be both professionals and laymen as well; hence, it is an important addition to the psychopathy assessment, both in research and practical contexts.

Shockvertising: The effect of disgust exposure on viewers’ nonconscious behavioral responses

Consumers frequently encounter disgusting images and disgust has been shown to produce a variety of behavioral responses when used in the context of advertisements or public service announcements. Building on theories of emotional appraisal and decision-making, we examine how physical and moral disgust differentially affect consumers’ identity and compensatory consumption. An internal meta-analysis of eight studies we conducted shows that feelings of disgust threaten different aspects of self-identity, which in turn trigger various forms of compensatory consumption. In particular, we hypothesize and find that physical disgust decreases consumers’ sense of power, which prompts them to act in a self-focused way to restore it (e.g., consume conspicuously). In contrast, moral disgust decreases consumers’ feelings of belongingness, which prompts them to act prosocially (e.g., donate to charity). Marketers often employ disgusting images to break through the advertising clutter or to scare consumers into doing something (i.e., shockvertising, fear appeals). Our findings suggest that they should closely evaluate which disgust stimuli to use and the specific subconscious and behavioral consequences such images elicit.

Neurological Underpinnings of Psychological Factors Distinguishing Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder From Misophonia

Several studies have suggested that misophonia should be categorized as an obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) due to similar neural manifestations, such as impairments in limbic structures, and psychological features, such as perfectionism and disgust sensitivity. However, the two disorders may differ in the domains of disgust sensitivity. In OCD, the domain of pathogen disgust has been studied extensively as per the contamination subtype. In misophonia, pathogen disgust has not been reported. We hypothesized that moral disgust may better characterize individuals with misophonia, as studies indicate that people with misophonia view their triggers as morally unacceptable. Furthermore, neuroimaging has shown anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) activation particularly during exposure to misophonic triggers, which is an area associated with moral assessment of stimuli. Another psychological factor that may point to the two disorders being discrete is intolerance of uncertainty (IU), an aversion to undetermined events. IU has been well documented in OCD: It has been found to be positively associated with striatal volume and dysfunction in the ACC—both of which are common findings in OCD. We expected people with misophonia not to exhibit IU since they experience distress in response to specific triggers and, unlike individuals with OCD, do not experience preemptive anxiety. Multivariate logistic regression analysis run on survey-gathered data revealed IU as a significant predictor of OCD symptoms and moral disgust as a significant predictor of misophonia. Consistent with our hypotheses, our findings suggest that IU and moral disgust and the associated neural underpinnings differentiate misophonia from OCD. [ Psychiatr Ann . 2023;53(12):570–580.]

Pathogen disgust is associated with interpersonal bias among healthcare professionals.

Pathogen avoidance is a fundamental motive that shapes many aspects of human behavior including bias against groups stereotypically linked to disease (e.g. immigrants, outgroup members). This link has only been examined in convenience samples and it is unknown how pathogen avoidance processes operate in populations experiencing prolonged and heightened pathogen threat such as healthcare professionals. We examined whether healthcare professionals demonstrate the same link between pathogen disgust and intergroup bias as has been documented among the general population. Participants (N = 317; 210 healthcare professionals) were recruited using snowball sampling to take an online survey. Participants completed the Three Domain Disgust Scale to assess pathogen, sexual and moral disgust. Participants then rated their perceptions of a fictitious immigrant group ('Krasneeans') and the degree to which they endorsed group-binding moral values. Compared to control participants, healthcare professionals reported lower levels of pathogen disgust, but not sexual or moral disgust. However, regardless of profession, higher pathogen disgust was associated with viewing Krasneeans as less likeable and more unclean. Additionally, regardless of profession, higher pathogen disgust was associated with greater endorsement of group-binding moral values, although healthcare professionals reported greater overall endorsement of group-binding moral values than did control participants. Although healthcare professionals demonstrated lower levels of pathogen disgust, they nevertheless exhibited largely the same relationship between pathogen disgust and interpersonal biases as did control participants. One practical implication of this association is that pathogen avoidance motives may contribute to inequitable patient treatment in healthcare settings.

Immoral, infectious, or both? How disgust sensitivity predicts judgments of violations against COVID‐19 mitigation actions

AbstractViolations against mitigation actions to prevent the spreading of the SARS‐CoV‐2 virus causing COVID‐19, such as not wearing a mask or not practicing social distancing, were seen as immoral and could also increase the likelihood of spreading the virus. In two studies (N1 = 318, N2 = 293), we found that moral and pathogen disgust sensitivity differentially predicted perceptions of such COVID‐19 violations against mitigation actions, framed as a moral, pathogen, or on a good‐bad dimension, albeit in a less specific way than initially hypothesized (e.g., regarding the pathogenic framed violations, not only pathogen but also moral disgust was associated with higher perceptions of infectiousness). These results suggest that individual differences, especially in pathogen disgust (and, more inconsistently, moral disgust), are important when evaluating violations against mitigation actions. Further research on the role of moral disgust is needed.

How Moral Disgust Affects Aggression: The Mediating Roles of Benign and Malicious Envy

ABSTRACT Aggression has been receiving much attention always as it has serious negative effects. Moral disgust may be a protective factor against aggression. This study explores the mediating role of malicious envy and benign envy in the relationship between moral disgust and aggression from the perspective of integrative functional theory of moral disgust. The present study recruited 1052 participants and asked them to complete Three Domains of Disgust Scale (including Moral Disgust Subscale), Benign and Malicious Envy Scale, and Aggression Scale. The results showed that: (1) benign envy acted as a mediating variable between moral disgust and aggression, and played a partial mediating role. Malicious envy acted as a mediating variable between moral disgust and aggression, and played a full mediator role. In other words, both benign envy and malicious envy played an independent mediating role between moral disgust and aggression; (2) Benign envy and malicious envy are the mediator variables at the same time, only malicious envy can play a fully mediating role between moral disgust and aggression. That’s to say, moral disgust can stably and significantly affect aggression through malicious envy. This study provided a theoretical reference to inhibit the generation of negative emotions and aggressive behaviors in social practice.

Spit, Disgust, and Parasite Stress Theory: A Message Experiment

Public health interventions targeting coughing and spitting during the Tuberculosis and 1918 flu epidemics were largely successful. Specifically, public health officials’ messaging framed the behavior of spitting as repulsive and endangering to others, prompting an elicitation of disgust. Anti-spitting campaigns – messaging that focuses on the threat of spit or sputum – have long been common during pandemics and manifested once again to combat the spread of COVID-19. Yet, few scholars have theorized if and how anti-spitting campaigns function to change behavior. One possibility is parasite stress theory, which posits that human behavior is driven by a desire to avoid pathogenic threats like spit. The application of these types of disgust appeals in public health messaging remains understudied and warrants exploration. To test the applicability of the parasite stress theory, our message experiment with US adults (N = 488) examined reactions to anti-spit messages that varied in visual disgust (low and high). For more highly educated respondents, the high disgust appeal directly decreased spitting intentions, and this relationship was stronger for individuals with higher levels of pathogen and moral disgust. Given the importance of public messaging during pandemics, future research should continue to examine the efficacy and theoretical underpinnings of specific disgust appeals.

Can immorality be contracted? Appraisals of moral disgust and contamination fear

While extant research underlines the role of disgust in obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) with contamination fear, less research attention has been devoted to moral disgust. This study endeavored to examine the types of appraisals that are elicited by moral disgust in comparison to core disgust, and to examine their associations with both contact and mental contamination symptoms. In a within-participants design, 148 undergraduate students were exposed to core disgust, moral disgust, and anxiety control elicitors via vignettes, and provided appraisal ratings of sympathetic magic, thought-action fusion and mental contamination, as well as compulsive urges. Measures of both contact and mental contamination symptoms were administered. Mixed modeling analyses indicated that core disgust and moral disgust elicitors both provoked greater appraisals of sympathetic magic and compulsive urges than anxiety control elicitors. Further, moral disgust elicitors elicited greater thought-action fusion and mental contamination appraisals than all other elicitors. Overall, these effects were greater in those with higher contamination fear. This study demonstrates how a range of contagion beliefs are evoked by the presence of ‘moral contaminants’, and that such beliefs are positively associated with contamination concerns. These results shed light on moral disgust as an important target in the treatment of contamination fear.

Pandemic elevates sensitivity to moral disgust but not pathogen disgust

The behavioral immune system, with disgust as its motivational part, serves as the first line of defense in organisms’ protection against pathogens. Laboratory studies indicate that disgust sensitivity adaptively adjusts to simulated environmental threat, but whether disgust levels similarly change in response to real-life threats, such as a pandemic, remains largely unknown. In a preregistered within-subject study, we tested whether the threat posed by the Covid-19 pandemic would lead to increased perceived disgust. The perception of threat was induced by testing during two phases of the Covid-19 pandemic (periods of high vs. low pathogen threat). We found heightened levels of moral disgust during a “wave” of the pandemic, but the effect was not observed in the domain of pathogen or sexual disgust. Moreover, the age of respondents and levels of trait anxiety were positively associated with pathogen and moral disgust, suggesting that variation in disgust sensitivity may be based chiefly on stable characteristics.