Exposed intestines and contaminated cooks: Sex,stress, & satiation predict disgust sensitivity

An evolutionary perspective predicts that the intensity of the disgust response should depend on the ancestral costs and benefits of coming into contact with disease vectors. Previous research advanced the compensatory behavioral prophylaxis hypothesis: progesterone-induced immunosuppression should be accompanied by increased disgust and contaminant-avoidance. However, extant data do not address whether factors other than progesterone-induced immunosuppression also trigger heightened disgust. The current study delineates two competing prophylaxis hypotheses and adjudicates between them by testing whether stress and satiation, which shift the costs and benefits of prophylactic behavior but are unrelated to progesterone-induced immunosuppression, predict disgust sensitivity. Results revealed a sex–stress–satiation interaction in predicting Disgust Scale-Revised (DS-R) scores. This study provides evidence of a broader system of compensatory prophylaxis, illuminates the functional basis of facultative shifts in disgust, and presents conceptual and statistical analyses for more cleanly cleaving the psychology of disgust at its natural joints.