Role Of Disgust Research Articles

Intentions to avoid sibling incest: the roles of disgust, anticipated guilt, and moral judgment

Intentions to avoid sibling incest: the roles of disgust, anticipated guilt, and moral judgment

Self-Disgust and Sexual Functioning: A Scenario-Based Study Testing the Ability of Sex-Related Experiences to Elicit Self-Directed Disgust

ABSTRACT Increasing evidence indicates that disgust might compromise sexual functioning and can contribute to sexual problems. Although the stimuli and conditions that elicit disgust vary greatly across individuals, they cluster in three categories of disgust elicitors: Stimuli that are associated with an increased risk of the transmission of infectious diseases (pathogen disgust), stimuli that signal poor mating quality and may jeopardize reproductive success (sexual disgust), and behaviors that violate social norms (moral disgust). It has been argued that each of these categories of disgust may interfere with sexual responses. Thus far, research on the role of disgust in sexual contexts focused on external stimuli (e.g., sperm). Yet, recently it has been proposed that disgust can also become directed to features of the self. Such self-directed disgust may also apply to sexual contexts and contribute to sexual problems. As a first step to explore the relevance of self-disgust in sexual functioning, we tested if indeed particular sexual experiences have the ability to elicit self-disgust. Using a within subject design, participants (N = 124; all women) imagined themselves as well as others experiencing a series of sex-related scenarios, each relevant for one of the three categories of disgust, and subsequently rated their self-disgust. For all types of disgust, the scenarios evoked self-disgust, and the “self-perspective” elicited significantly more self-disgust than the “other-perspective.” These findings support theoretical models pointing to the relevance of taking self-disgust into consideration as a factor that may compromise sexual functioning. Future research should test whether this also holds for men.

Specificity Versus Generality: A Meta-Analytic Review of the Association Between Trait Disgust Sensitivity and Moral Judgment

Disgust seems to play an important role in moral judgment. However, it is unclear whether the role of disgust in moral judgment is limited to certain kinds of moral domains (versus many) and/or certain types of disgust (versus many). To clarify these questions, we conducted a multilevel meta-analysis ( k = 512; N = 72,443) on relations between trait disgust sensitivity and moral judgment (disgust-immorality association). Main analyses revealed a significant overall mean disgust-immorality association ( r = .23). Additionally, moderator analyses revealed significant specificity in disgust type and moral domain (grounded in Moral Foundations Theory): effects were stronger for (a) sexual disgust compared to pathogen disgust, (b) sanctity moral judgments compared to other domains of moral judgments, and (c) sexual-sanctity associations compared to other disgust type-moral domain pairings.

Consumers’ attitudes towards alternatives to conventional meat products: Expectations about taste and satisfaction, and the role of disgust

The livestock sector has environmental, health, and animal welfare impacts. This UK-based, quantitative study aimed to elucidate consumers' valuation of alternatives to conventional meat products. In an online study, 151 meat eaters and 44 non-meat eaters were shown pictures of meat, dairy, and bakery products, including beef burger, cheese sandwich and blueberry muffin. Each product was evaluated with three different labels (e.g., ‘conventional’, ‘plant-based’ and ‘cultured’ for beef burger). Participants rated expected taste pleasantness, fullness, satisfaction, healthiness, disgust and willingness-to-pay for each product/label combination. The results obtained demonstrate that alternatives to conventional meat products overall are acceptable to both meat and non-meat eaters. Although meat eaters' expected plant-based meat alternatives to be less satisfying, due to lower expected taste pleasantness and fillingness (Cohen's d = 0.14 to 0.63), they perceived the plant-based alternatives to be more healthy (d ≥ 1.18). Cultured meat products were perceived by meat eaters to be equally or more healthy, but more disgusting (d ≥ 0.41), than conventional meat products. These results suggest there is an opportunity to promote (motivate) acceptance of alternatives to conventional meat products based on their perceived healthiness, to at least partly balance reduced expected taste pleasantness and other negative attributes (i.e., barriers).

The Problem of Purity in Moral Psychology

Academic The idea of “purity” transformed moral psychology. Here, we provide the first systematic review of this concept. Although often discussed as one construct, we reveal ~9 understandings of purity, ranging from respecting God to not eating gross things. This striking heterogeneity arises because purity—unlike other moral constructs—is not understood by what it is but what it isn’t: obvious interpersonal harm. This poses many problems for moral psychology and explains why purity lacks convergent and divergent validity and why purity is confounded with politics, religion, weirdness, and perceived harm. Because purity is not a coherent construct, it cannot be a distinct basis of moral judgment or specially tied to disgust. Rather than a specific moral domain, purity is best understood as a loose set of themes in moral rhetoric. These themes are scaffolded on cultural understandings of harm—the broad, pluralistic harm outlined by the Theory of Dyadic Morality. Public People are fascinated by morality—how do people make moral judgments and why do liberals and conservatives seem to frequently disagree? “Purity” is one moral concept often discussed when talking about morality—it has been suggested to capture moral differences across politics and to demonstrate the evolutionary roots of morality, especially the role of disgust in moral judgment. However, despite the many books and articles that mention purity, there is no systematic analysis of purity. Here, we review all existing academic articles focused on purity in morality. We find that purity is an especially messy concept that lacks scientific validity. Because it is so poorly defined and inconsistently measured, it should not be invoked to explain our moral minds or political differences.

Mental health professionals’ attitudes towards patients with borderline personality disorder: The role of disgust

IntroductionMental health professionals’ derogatory attitudes towards patients diagnosed with borderline personality disorder (BPD) may negatively affect treatment outcomes.ObjectivesWe aimed to identify a) negative attitudes exhibited by mental health professionals towards BPD patients and b) the effects of disgust propensity and disgust sensitivity on theses negative attitudes.MethodsMental health professionals (N = 136) completed questionnaires on attitudes towards BPD patients, disgust propensity/sensitivity, and sociodemographic variables.ResultsSignificant differences in negative attitudes toward BPD patients based on gender, marital status, occupational subgroup, educational level, psychotherapy training, level of exposure to BPD patients, and political ideology were found. Results suggested BPD patients are viewed by mental health professionals as ineffective, incomprehensible, dangerous, unworthy, immoral, undesirable to be with, and dissimilar to the mental health professionals. Moreover, disgust propensity and the pathogen component of disgust sensitivity were associated with stronger negative attitudes towards BPD patients.ConclusionsThe findings emphasize the importance of mental health professionals’ awareness of the emotion of disgust as a relevant factor to their negative attitudes towards BPD patients.DisclosureNo significant relationships.

Mental Health Professionals’ Attitudes towards Patients with Borderline Personality Disorder: The Role of Disgust

Negative attitudes towards patients with borderline personality disorder (BPD) may affect treatment outcomes. We aimed to identify a) negative attitudes exhibited by mental health professionals towards patients with BPD and b) the effects of disgust propensity and disgust sensitivity on these negative attitudes. Mental health professionals (N = 136) completed questionnaires on attitudes towards patients with BPD and disgust propensity/sensitivity. Significant differences in negative attitudes towards patients with BPD based on gender, marital status, occupational subgroup, educational level, psychotherapy training, level of exposure to patients with BPD, and political ideology were found. Results suggested patients with BPD are viewed by mental health professionals as ineffective, incomprehensible, dangerous, unworthy, immoral, undesirable to be with, and dissimilar to the mental health professionals. Moreover, disgust propensity and disgust sensitivity were associated with stronger negative attitudes towards patients with BPD. The findings emphasize the importance of mental health professionals’ awareness of the emotion of disgust as a relevant factor to their negative attitudes towards patients with BPD.

'The last thing you feel is the self-disgust'. The role of self-directed disgust in men who have attempted suicide: A grounded theory study.

ObjectiveGlobally, suicide affects more men than women. Emotional pain underpins many theoretical accounts of suicidality, yet little is known about the role of disgust in suicide. Self‐directed disgust, whereby aspects of the self‐serve as an object of disgust, has been hypothesised to factor in suicide. This research aimed to explore the processes which link self‐disgust to attempted suicide in males.MethodNine men who had attempted suicide completed semi‐structured interviews. The interview data were analysed using a constructivist grounded theory methodology.ResultsThree concepts emerged out of the analysis: (1) self‐disgust; (2) worthlessness; and (3) the endured emotional distress of ‘the abyss’” – these concepts interweaved, leading the men to experience hopelessness, disconnection and an inability to cope, leading ultimately to their suicide attempt. Throughout this journey, various disgust‐related processes worsened men's distress and increased their suicidal risk. Historic adversities prevailed across the data, as did the men's difficulties in understanding their emotions.ConclusionSelf‐disgust was an important emotion in the men's experiences of suicide and shaped their views of themselves and their lives. The distancing and repellent properties of self‐disgust, in addition to the fear of having their ‘disgustingness’ exposed, increased suicidal risk. Self‐disgust appeared more pervasive in the suicidality of men with a history of multiple childhood adversities. The limitations of this research are discussed as implications for clinical practice and directions for future research.

Concern about salient pathogen threats increases sensitivity to disgust

Individuals vary in their sensitivity to disgust—differences that have implications for intergroup attitudes, political ideology, and beyond. However, the source of this variability in disgust sensitivity remains a subject of debate. In this work, we test the hypothesis that sensitivity to disgust is “calibrated” by an individual's concern about disease threats in their local ecology. Leveraging the COVID-19 pandemic, we obtain strong support for this hypothesis, finding that disgust sensitivity increased following the COVID-19 outbreak and that the degree of this increase was moderated by an individual's subjective concern about contracting the disease. This work fills a longstanding theoretical gap regarding the sources of variability in disgust sensitivity, while challenging the view that disgust sensitivity is an immutable individual difference. Given the role of disgust in motivating intergroup prejudice and political ideology, we anticipate that these increases in disgust sensitivity are likely to have important downstream societal implications.

Contamination fear in the time of the COVID-19 pandemic: A moderated mediation quasi-experimental model of the effect of disgust on outgroup bias towards diaspora.

Disgust sensitivity plays a key role in generating and maintaining outgroup biases. To test our hypotheses, we used a quasi-experimental between-subjects design, in which participants were randomly assigned to a disgust induction condition (N = 102) or a non-induction neutral group (N = 92). The induction scenario featured the return of the diaspora to their home country due to COVID-19 concerns. In one scenario, the diaspora lied about the country they arrived from, and in the other, there was no moral transgression. We hypothesized that the effect of disgust sensitivity on dehumanization and aggressive tendencies passed through contamination fear and the moderated mediation model indicated that this indirect effect was stronger for participants in the disgust-induction than in the non-induction group. This effect was found for biological dehumanization and passive aggression outcomes, both related to outgroup bias. Consistent with the role of disgust as a disease-avoidance mechanism, our results suggest that disgust could facilitate stronger outgroup bias in the context of a high health threat, such as the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Role of Disgust and Threat in Contamination-Related Obsessive–Compulsive Disorder

AbstractTheoretical models suggest that the emotion disgust or threat overestimates are important in the aetiology and maintenance of contamination-based obsessive–compulsive disorder. In the current study, both threat and disgust were manipulated and 115 non-clinical participants (mean age 20.46 years, 94 females) were randomly allocated to one of four conditions: high-disgust/low-threat (n = 29), high-disgust/high-threat (n = 29), low-disgust/low-threat (n = 27), and low-disgust/high-threat (n = 30). Participants completed a hierarchical Behavioural Avoidance Task (BAT). Those in the high-threat and high-disgust conditions completed less BAT steps and showed more latency to begin each step than those in the low-threat and low-disgust conditions. A significant interaction effect was observed for the high-disgust/high-threat condition as significantly more task avoidance was found. However, handwashing duration was not significantly different between the high and low-disgust conditions or the high and low-threat conditions. The overall low mean washing duration of 30 s possibly due to the testing conditions and/or the ethnic heterogeneity of the sample may account for these results. There were also no significant differences in the level of anxiety for participants in the high-threat compared with the low-threat conditions. It is possible that anxiety remained relatively low across conditions as a result of the graduated BAT. Future research and theoretical and clinical implications are discussed.

Encouraging sustainable insect-based diets: The role of disgust, social influence, and moral concern in insect consumption

Disgust, social influence, and moral concern seem to play a pivotal role in insect consumption. Research examining these factors, particularly in the UK, is currently lacking. As a result, two studies were conducted to examine the perceived barriers and benefits of insect consumption, and how disgust can be counteracted. First, a cross-sectional study (N = 600) showed that disgust and moral concerns were unique predictors of individual’s willingness to consume insect products. Second, we conducted an experiment (N = 519) to examine whether knowledge that someone else consumes an insect-based product impacts one’s own willingness to consume insects. In this study we replicated Hartmann, Ruby, Schmidt, and Siegrist (2018) methodology of giving information about an insect consumer but added details about the individuals’ occupation and what type of product they consumed, examining how these factors impacted individual’s willingness to consume insect-based products. We found that this information did not impact willingness to consume; however, it did influence feelings of disgust and perceived acceptability. This study also replicated the first study by demonstrating that disgust and moral concern are barriers to insect consumption. We hope the current findings trigger future research to examine how disgust can be counteracted, and to better understand the role of moral concern in insect consumption.

Does Disgust Drive Religious Freedom Attitudes? Experimental Results About the Context of Service Refusal Opinion

ObjectiveWhat factors shape public support for service refusals carried out in the name of the free exercise of religion? Existing analyses treat the businesses refusing to serve LGBT citizens as fungible. We hypothesize that the religious context does not matter and that reactions are consistent with the role of socialized disgust.MethodsWe engage the same experimental design in two 2019 samples, one of 800 Colorado adult residents and one of 1,010 Protestants. The 1 × 2 × 2 design enables a contrast between a control, conditions that vary the business between a florist and photographer, and conditions that vary the religious nature of the event.ResultsThe results suggest that the religious nature of the context is immaterial and that reactions generally conform with the role of disgust, especially for those socialized to feel it—high attending evangelicals.ConclusionWe affirm the importance of the context of service delivery for religious freedom attitudes and discuss the role of religion.

The biopolitical function of disgust: ethical and political implications of biopedagogies of disgust in anti-colonial education

ABSTRACT This paper presents how biopedagogies of disgust can make a contribution to challenging the colonial order that is sustained through affective economies of disgust. It is argued that, for this to happen, teachers need to move students away from the negative affective responses of disgust towards an affirmation of radical difference. Affective solidarity, in particular, might serve as a foundational element of affirmative biopedagogies of disgust and provide a means to reversing the negative role of disgust in colonial continuity. It is argued that fostering affective solidarity is an ethically, politically and pedagogically valuable strategy, because it does not only generate empathy for the colonized Others’ suffering throughout history, but it also cultivates in students commitment to turn critical self-reflection on the visceral elements of disgust into transformative action.

Consumer attitudes towards alternative meat products: expectations about taste and the role of disgust

Consumer attitudes towards alternative meat products: expectations about taste and the role of disgust

Disgust propensity and sensitivity in childhood anxiety and obsessive-compulsive disorder: Two constructs differentially related to obsessional content

The role of disgust in anxiety and related disorders has been extensively studied in adults, however its role in childhood psychopathology is in need of further investigation. The adult literature has suggested that two distinct sub-constructs within “disgust proneness” may differentially predict anxiety-related disorders. Namely, disgust propensity (DP) has been defined as the likelihood an individual will experience a disgust reaction, and disgust sensitivity (DS) as the degree to which an individual is distressed by their experience of disgust. The current study aimed to validate the Disgust Propensity and Sensitivity Scale-Revised (DPSS-R) in a sample of youth receiving intensive services for OCD and anxiety, examine the relationship between disgust sub-constructs and obsessional content in a sample of youth with OCD, and examine the relationship between disgust change and symptom severity at discharge. A confirmatory factor analysis supported a two-factor structure of the DPSS-R. DP was found to be uniquely predictive of contamination obsessions, and DS was found to be uniquely predictive of moral obsessions. Lastly, change in DP, but not DS, predicted overall change in OCD symptom severity. The present study provides a valid measure of DS and DP in youth with anxiety and related disorders, and suggests that subconstructs of disgust may serve as distinct risk factors for obsessional content in youth with OCD. Future research should examine the predictive validity of DP and DS longitudinally, as well as examine effective ways to more effectively target DP with exposure therapy.

Cross-validation of the entomophagy attitude questionnaire (EAQ): A study in China on eaters and non-eaters

Research interest in direct entomophagy (the eating of insects) and indirect entomophagy (the eating of insects-fed animals) has grown exponentially in recent years. The use of insects as food and feed is a potential avenue to meet the growing global food demand, and for enhancing the sustainability of animal diets as well. The Entomophagy Attitude Questionnaire (EAQ) has been recently proposed as a specific measure of attitudes towards direct and indirect entomophagy. First aim of the current study was to cross-validate the EAQ in a non-Western country. An additional aim was to explore the differences between who have previously eaten insects and who have not. Hence, the EAQ was administered to a convenience Chinese sample (N = 395), together with measures of intention to eat insects either directly or indirectly. Confirmatory Factor Analysis showed a satisfactory fit of the EAQ three-factor model. The instrument showed adequate psychometric properties, and evidences of convergent and divergent validity of EAQ’s latent constructs were found. In addition, EAQ was found to predict effectively participants’ intention to engage both in direct and indirect entomophagy. Results thus support the validity of EAQ and the conceptualization underpinning it in a non-Western country. The main difference emerged between eaters and non-eaters regards the role of disgust, which is more predictive of intention for non-eaters, whereas positive attitude (interest) is more predictive for eaters. Hence, different communication strategies are suggested for individuals who already have vs. have not experienced the direct or indirect eating of insects.

An Overprotective Nose? Implicit Bias Is Positively Related to Individual Differences in Body Odor Disgust Sensitivity.

Body odors are universal elicitors of disgust, a core emotion that plays a key role in the behavioral immune system (BIS) – a set of psychological functions working to avoid disease. Recent studies showed that body odor disgust sensitivity (BODS) is associated with explicit xenophobia and authoritarianism. In the current experimental pre-registered study (https://osf.io/6jkp2/), we investigated the association between olfactory pathogen cues, BODS and implicit bias toward an outgroup (tested by an implicit association test). Results show that BODS is positively related to implicit bias toward an outgroup, suggesting that social attitudes may be linked to basic chemosensory processes. These attitudes were not influenced by background odors. Additionally, BODS was related to social, but not economic conservatism. This study extends the BIS framework to an experimental context by focusing on the role of disgust and body odors in shaping implicit bias.

The roles of disgust and harm perception in political attitude moralization.

What causes people to see their political attitudes in a moral light? One answer is that attitude moralization results from associating one's attitude stance with feelings of disgust. To test the possibility that disgust moralizes, the current study used a high-powered preregistered design looking at within-person change in moral conviction paired with an experimental manipulation of disgust or anger (versus control). Results from the preregistered analyses found that we successfully induced anger but not disgust; however, our manipulation had no effect on moral conviction. Additional exploratory analyses investigating whether emotion and harm predicted increases in moral conviction over time found that neither disgust, anger, nor sadness had an effect on moralization, whereas perceptions of harm did predict moralization. Our findings are discussed in terms of their implications for current theory and research into attitude moralization.

Incompleteness, harm avoidance, and disgust: A comparison of youth with OCD, anxiety disorders, and no psychiatric disorder

Psychological models of pediatric obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) place a heavy emphasis on harm avoidance as a maintaining factor and target for treatment. Incompleteness and disgust may also play a role in pediatric OCD but remain understudied. Youth with OCD (n = 100), anxiety disorders (n = 96), and no impairing psychiatric symptoms (n = 25) completed self-report measures of trait-level incompleteness, harm avoidance, and disgust and current symptoms of OCD, anxiety, and depression. Group differences and associations between emotions, symptoms, and pre- to post-treatment change in overall OCD severity were examined. Youth with OCD and anxiety disorders scored higher on harm avoidance and disgust than youth with no psychiatric disorder. Youth with OCD scored higher on incompleteness than youth with anxiety disorders and youth with no psychiatric disorder. Harm avoidance showed unique associations to self-reported symptoms of OCD, anxiety, and depression while incompleteness was uniquely related to OCD and disgust to anxiety. Within the OCD sample, incompleteness and harm avoidance were differentially related to the major OCD symptom dimensions, and change in incompleteness was uniquely related to pre- to post-treatment change in OCD severity. Trait-level incompleteness appears to play a central role in pediatric OCD and studies investigating its direct involvement in symptoms and associations with treatment outcome are needed. The role of disgust in relation to pediatric OCD remains unclear.