The role of intergroup disgust in predicting negative outgroup evaluations

We introduce intergroup disgust as an individual difference and contextual manipulation. As an individual difference, intergroup disgust sensitivity (ITG-DS) represents affect-laden revulsion toward social outgroups, incorporating beliefs in stigma transfer and social superiority. Study 1 (5 samples, N = 708) validates the ITG-DS scale. Higher ITG-DS scorers demonstrated greater general disgust sensitivity, disease concerns, authoritarian/conservative ideologies, and negative affect. Greater ITG-DS correlated with stronger outgroup threat perceptions and discrimination, and uniquely predicted negative outgroup attitudes beyond well-established prejudice-predictors. Intergroup disgust was experimentally manipulated in Study 2, exposing participants (n = 164) to a travel blog concerning contact with a disgust-evoking (vs. neutral) outgroup. Manipulated disgust generated negative outgroup evaluations through greater threat and anxiety. This mediation effect was moderated: Those higher (vs. lower) in ITG-DS did not experience stronger disgust, threat, or anxiety reactions, but demonstrated stronger translation of aversive reactions (especially outgroup threat) into negative attitudes. Theory development and treatment implications are considered.     

Sensitivity to disgust, stigma, and adjustment to life with a colostomy

We examined whether trait disgust sensitivity predicts well-being in colostomy patients, and whether disgust predicts stigmatizing attitudes about colostomy in non-patients. 195 patients with a colostomy returned a mailed survey including measures of disgust sensitivity, life satisfaction, mood, and feelings of being stigmatized. We also conducted an internet-survey of a non-patient sample (n = 523). In the patient sample, we observed negative correlations between a bowel-specific measure of disgust sensitivity and life satisfaction (r = -.34, p<.01), and colostomy adjustment ( r = -.42, p<.01), and a positive correlation with feeling stigmatized because of the colostomy (r = .54, p<.01). Correlations between a general trait disgust measure and these outcomes were more modest. A structural equation model indicated that colostomy patients who had high disgust sensitivity felt more stigmatized, and this was in turn strongly related to lower life satisfaction. Concordantly, in the non-patient sample we observed that disgust sensitivity was a significant, positive predictor of wanting less contact with colostomy patients (r = .22, p < .01).     

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.     

Gross gods and icky atheism: Disgust responses to rejected religious beliefs

Disgust is an emotional response that helps to maintain and protect physical and spiritual purity by signaling contamination and motivating the restoration of personal cleanliness. In the present research we predicted that disgust may be elicited by contact with outgroup religious beliefs, as these beliefs pose a threat to spiritual purity. Two experiments tested this prediction using a repeated taste-test paradigm in which participants tasted and rated a drink before and after copying a passage from an outgroup religion. In Experiment 1, Christian participants showed increased disgust after writing a passage from the Qur'an or Richard Dawkins' The God Delusion, but not a control text. Experiment 2 replicated this effect, and also showed that contact with an ingroup religious belief (Christians copying from the Bible) did not elicit disgust. Moreover, Experiment 2 showed that disgust to rejected beliefs was eliminated when participants were allowed to wash their hands after copying the passage, symbolically restoring spiritual cleanliness. Together, these results provide evidence that contact with rejected religious beliefs elicits disgust by symbolically violating spiritual purity. Implications for intergroup relations between religious groups is discussed, and the role of disgust in the protection of beliefs that hold moral value.     

厌恶情绪对法律判断的影响:基于进化心理学的视角

进化心理学认为,厌恶是人类在疾病、资源缺乏等适应性压力情境下,为抵御有害物质入侵通过自然选择而形成的进化心理机制。根据进化的观点,道德厌恶是由生理厌恶进化而来。道德厌恶有利于避免违反社会规范的行为。厌恶的激活会使道德判断更加苛刻,由此提出厌恶在法律判断中的几点启示:(1)避免直觉情绪对判断的干扰;(2)保持审议厅清洁,避免外在环境引起的厌恶情绪干扰法律判断;(3)对陪审团成员进行个体意识性和厌恶敏感性测量,避免道德过度警觉的现象发生。     

Disgust in Emotion Theory,Development, and Clinical Work: A Discussion of Josephs

Disgust is one of the primal emotions described by Darwin and strongly influences human motivation, behavior, and psychopathology. Disgust has sensory aspects, but when combined with certain cognitions it can take on moral implications. Although the biological source of disgust is protection from harmful substances, it can be manipulated to achieve political ends. Disgust combined with lust can sometimes lead to heightened sexual excitement. Disgust reactions may also be a defensive denial of our hidden desires. Psychotherapists must be careful to distinguish their own disgust reactions from the patient’s lovemap. In couples therapy, disgust reactions and mutual shaming processes can be clarified and restructured.     

不同注意资源水平上核心厌恶和道德厌恶刺激加工分离效应的ERPs研究

厌恶帮助人类避免接触生物病菌、社会道德威胁物。本研究采用“线索—靶”范式考察不同注意资源水平上核心和道德厌恶刺激的认知加工特征。结果发现,核心厌恶刺激诱发的P2波幅显著大于道德厌恶和中性刺激;有效线索下核心厌恶刺激的P3波幅与道德厌恶刺激间差异不显著,而无效线索下核心厌恶刺激的P3波幅显著大于道德厌恶。结果表明两类厌恶刺激在不同注意资源水平上存在加工分离效应,支持了厌恶情绪“异质性”的观点。     

Production of spontaneous and posed facial expressions in patients with Huntington's disease: Impaired communication of disgust

Several studies have reported impairment in the recognition of facial expressions of disgust in patients with Huntington's disease (HD) and preclinical carriers of the HD gene. The aim of this study was to establish whether impairment for disgust in HD patients extended to include the ability to express the emotion on their own faces. Eleven patients with HD, and 11 age and education matched healthy controls participated in three tasks concerned with the expression of emotions. One task assessed the spontaneous production of disgust-like facial expressions during the smelling of offensive odorants. A second assessed the production of posed facial expressions during deliberate attempts to communicate emotion. The third task evaluated HD patients’ ability to imitate the specific facial configurations associated with each emotion. Foul odours induced fewer disgust-like facial reactions in HD patients than in controls, and patients’ posed facial expressions of disgust were less accurate than the posed disgust expressions of controls. The effect was selective to disgust; patients had no difficulty posing expressions of other emotions. These impairments were not explained by compromised muscle control: HD patients had no difficulty imitating the facial movements required to display disgust. Viewed together with evidence of difficulty in other aspects of disgust in HD, the findings suggest that a common substrate might participate in both the processing and the expression of this emotion.     

Is Disgust Prepared? A Preliminary Examination in Young Children

Children may be prepared to associate adult disgust reactions with adult disgust elicitors. To test this, three-year olds (and adults) were presented with two images and an emotive vocalization. The images and vocalizations included stimuli adults found disgusting, fear-provoking, and sad. On one set of trials, the main dependent variable (DV) was time spent looking at each image and on a second set of repeat trials the DV was knowledge of image-sound matches. Fear and disgust vocalizations were both more effective at orienting a child's attention to adult fear and disgust images, than sad vocalizations. Parental disgust sensitivity was associated with this effect, moderated by explicit matching knowledge. Matching knowledge was poor in children and good in adults. These data suggest that in children, fear and disgust vocalizations may both promote attention to stimuli that adults find disgusting and/or fear-provoking, suggesting that “preparedness” may not be wholly emotion-specific.     

A taxometric study of the latent structure of disgust sensitivity: converging evidence for dimensionality

Disgust sensitivity has recently been implicated as a specific vulnerability factor for several anxiety-related disorders. However, it is not clear whether disgust sensitivity is a dimensional or categorical phenomenon. The present study examined the latent structure of disgust by applying three taxometric procedures (maximum eigenvalue, mean above minus below a cut, and latent-mode factor analysis) to data collected from 2 large nonclinical samples on 2 different measures of disgust sensitivity. Disgust sensitivity in the first sample (n=1,153) was operationalized by disgust reactions to food, animals, body products, sex, body envelope violations, death, hygiene, and sympathetic magic, as assessed by the Disgust Sensitivity Scale (J. Haidt, C. McCauley, & P. Rozin, 1994). Disgust Sensitivity Scale indicators of core, animal reminder, and contamination disgust were also examined in the 1st sample. Disgust sensitivity in the 2nd independent sample (n=1,318) was operationalized by disgust reactions to animals, injections and blood draws, mutilation and death, rotting foods, and odors, as assessed by the Disgust Emotion Scale (R. A. Kleinknecht, E. E. Kleinknecht, & R. M. Thorndike, 1997). Results across both samples provide converging evidence that disgust sensitivity is best conceptualized as a dimensional construct, present to a greater or lesser extent in all individuals. These findings are discussed in relation to the conceptualization and assessment of disgust sensitivity as a specific dimensional vulnerability for certain anxiety and related disorders.     

Jenny Saville and a Feminist Aesthetics of Disgust

This essay examines an aesthetics of disgust through an analysis of the work of Scottish painter Jenny Saville. Saville's paintings suggest that there is something valuable in retaining and interrogating our immediate and seemingly unambivalent reactions of disgust. I contrast Saville's representations of disgust to the repudiation of disgust that characterizes contemporary corporeal politics. Drawing on the theoretical work of Elspeth Probyn and Julia Kristeva, I suggest that an aesthetics of disgust reveals the fundamental ambiguity of embodiment, allowing us to critically attend to the aesthetic and cultural objectification of the female body.     

The effect of disgust on preference for structure: Evidence for a double‐sided response

The literature on emotions converges on the idea that people cope with the undesired effects of disgust through an immediate response of avoidance aimed to the physical and psychological rejection of any contamination threat. However, previous research does not consider what happens after this immediate response. We investigate the dual response to disgust and propose that disgust generates an immediate preference for structure, but also an opposite, subsequent tendency to prefer unstructured stimuli. Our reasoning is based on the mobilization‐minimization theory, which suggests opposed reactions to negative emotions. We demonstrate that, while immediate reactions to disgust imply preference for structured logos, after the disgust‐eliciting stimulus is eliminated from the environment, people show higher preference for visually unstructured logos. The study of the dual response to disgust offers novel insights to consumer behavior, decision‐making, and emotion literature, showing that a typically avoidance‐triggering emotion, that is, disgust, can then lead to opposite effects in terms of preference for structure.     

Health Is Associated With Antiparasite Behavior and Fear of Disease-Relevant Animals in Humans

Evolutionary arms races between humans and parasites resulted in a set of behavioral adaptations that serve as parasite-avoidance mechanisms. We investigated associations among reported health of the respondent, antiparasite behavior, and sensitivity to disgust and fear of disease-relevant and irrelevant animals. Ninety-seven participants (15–19 years old) rated their fear and disgust at 25 colorful pictures of disease-relevant and disease-irrelevant invertebrates. Consistent with previous work, we found that participants reported greater fear and disgust of disease-relevant invertebrates relative to disease-irrelevant invertebrates. Better perceived health correlated with lower fear of disease-relevant invertebrates. Sensitivity to disgust correlated with reported antiparasite behaviors. Contrary to expectations, we found a positive correlation between antiparasite behavior and reported health, which suggests that antiparasite behavior influences perceived health (but not vice versa), and we found that males perform more antiparasite behaviors than females. These results support the idea that disgust and fear of disease-relevant objects are adaptive emotions that prevent contact with contagious objects, especially in individuals with low perceived health.     

对由不同途径感染的艾滋病患者的区别性反应及中介分析

研究探讨了中国大学生对由不同途径感染的艾滋病患者的区别性反应,涉及的因变量包括对艾滋病患者的总体感受、情绪反应、责任感知、接触意愿等。结果显示：1）和主观不可控途径（输血和母婴）相比,大学生对由可控途径（性和吸毒）感染的艾滋病患者感到更多的生气、讨厌和恐惧,更少地感到同情,表现出更强的负性态度,更少的接触意愿;同时还认为由性和吸毒感染的艾滋病患者应该承担更多的责任,更应该接受强制处理;2）女性比男性表现出对艾滋病患者更低的接触意愿,但是在其它反应上,均没发现性别差异;3)中介分析显示,对由不同途径感染的艾滋病患者的不同的态度反应在一定程度上是由不同的情绪反应导致的,负性情绪会导致负性态度,同情会导致正性态度。这些结果提示,要减少对艾滋病患者的偏见和歧视等负性反应,营造一个有利于艾滋病防治的社会环境,对由不同途径感染的艾滋病患者应该有针对性地采取不同的策略,要尽可能减少负性情绪、唤起同情心     

Conditioned nausea in rats: Assessment by conditioned disgust reactions, rather than conditioned taste avoidance

The terms conditioned taste avoidance and conditioned taste aversion are often used interchangeably in the literature; however, considerable evidence indicates that they may represent different processes. Conditioned taste avoidance is measured by the amount that a rat drinks in a consumption test that includes both appetitive phases and consummatory phases of responding. However, conditioned taste aversion is more directly assessed using the taste reactivity (TR) test that includes only the consummatory phase of responding. Rats display a conditioned taste aversion as conditioned disgust reactions (gapes, chin rubs, and paw treads) during an intraoral infusion of a nausea-paired flavored solution. Only treatments that produce nausea produce conditioned disgust reactions, but even rewarding drugs produce conditioned taste avoidance. Furthermore, treatments that alleviate nausea prevent the establishment and the expression of conditioned disgust reactions, but they do not necessarily modify conditioned taste avoidance. Considerable evidence exists indicating that these two measures can be independent of one another. The potential of a compound to produce conditioned disgust reactions is a reflection of its nausea-inducing properties. Taste avoidance may be motivated by conditioned fear rather than conditioned nausea, but conditioned disgust is motivated by conditioned nausea. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2008 APA, all rights reserved).     

三领域厌恶情绪的时程加工模式：攻击性个体差异的视角

本研究利用事件相关电位技术结合内隐任务范式探究了三领域厌恶情绪的加工过程,同时测量了 个体的攻击水平,以期找到加工厌恶情绪的个体差异。在加工早期（130-190ms）,生理厌恶刺激和道德厌恶刺激均可得到识别;在加工中期（300-350ms） ,三种厌恶刺激相互分离,三种厌恶情绪之间得到了区分;在加工晚期（400-600ms） ,个体则对性厌恶刺激最为敏感; 不同攻击水平个体在加工厌恶刺激的过程中并未表现出明显的个体差异。结果表明, 在神经层面上,三维结构下的厌恶情绪确实能够得到识别与区分。     

Le dégoût dans le trouble obsessionnel compulsif,mécanismes, évaluation,implications pour des pistes thérapeutiques

IntroductionAlthough considered a basic emotion, disgust has received little attention from research from the psychology of emotions compared to other emotions such as fear or sadness.Literature findingsMany empirical and experimental data suggest, however, that disgust plays a determining role not only in our ability to adapt to our environment but also in the maintenance and development of certain psychopathological states such as obsessive-compulsive disorders. The purpose of this article is to review the literature on the construct of disgust, including its two basic dimensions of disgust and disgust. A first part will be dedicated to the acquisition of disgust in the framework of evaluative and Pavlovian learning, we will then describe in detail the assessment tools available in the literature allowing to evaluate the different dimensions, then we will address the continuum. Experience of disgust, from normal disgust to pathological disgust, and will particularly target its role in dysfunctional obsessions of contamination and emotional distress.DiscussionIf, from a theoretical point of view, the understanding of the underlying mechanisms of pathological disgust reactions improves, the proposals for treatment to mitigate these reactions are rare. New approaches to care will be described to allow the development of empirically based psychological interventions.ConclusionThe recognition of emotional influences beyond anxiety in obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) stems from the fundamental importance of a dimensional approach to psychopathology and support. The accumulated data suggest that the inclusion of disgust in the theoretical models of OCD, in particular those with contamination concern, will thus improve our understanding and treatment of this disorder.     

The Ontogeny,Cultural Context,and Treatment of Disgust

This article links Lawrence Josephs’ valuable thoughts on The Treatment of Oedipal Disgust: When one Person’s Sexual Delight is Another’s Disgust to Freud’s ideas concerning negation and the origins of judgment. In keeping with a comparative-integrative spirit, the author references relevant concepts from diverse contributors, from classical to contemporary. Jacobson and Christensen’s acceptance approach that Josephs found useful in a couple’s treatment where disgust was a major issue is discussed in terms of how it might be seen from a variety of psychoanalytic perspectives, with particular reference to the founder of our discipline. The fundamental importance of boundaries is emphasized throughout, with disgust providing an excellent illustration of their significance to the establishment and protection of the self. The evolution of revulsion in individual and cultural development is described. Case material is introduced to illustrate potent links between oral disgust stimulated by relational stress and trauma in the first year of life and subsequent disgust (e.g., oedipal). Revulsion’s role in negative therapeutic reactions is examined.     

The Treatment of Oedipal Disgust: When One Person’s Sexual Delight Is Another’s Disgust

Sexual disgust has been conceptualized in terms of drive theory and preoedipal dynamics. Sexual disgust can also be conceptualized from a relational perspective that draws on oedipal psychodynamics as well as recent research on disgust as a form of embodied moral cognition. From a subjective viewpoint, sexual disgust is self-affirming, as it preserves the purity, sanctity, and desirability of the self in the face of polluting sexual contact. Yet from an other-centered viewpoint, sexual disgust precludes empathic recognition when it shames the object of sexual disgust and rationalizes its mistreatment. This dialectic of assertion (i.e., refusal to submit to something sexually disgusting) and recognition (i.e., affirmation as an object of sexual desire) plays out in adult romantic relationships when one partner’s sexual delight is the other partner’s sexual disgust.     

Emotions in sexual morality: Testing the separate elicitors of anger and disgust

Recent work suggests that negative moral judgements of sexual activities are informed by disgust and anger. A correlational study (N=62) and an experiment (N=176) examined the specific antecedents that elicit these distinct, though correlated, moral emotions. Participants in Study 1 rated their emotional reactions to, and judgements of, 10 sexual scenarios. Across scenarios, judgements of abnormality predicted disgust independent of anger, and judgements of harm/rights violation predicted anger independent of disgust. Study 2 replicated these results in an experimental design. Participants rated their emotions and judgements in response to behaviours that varied in degree of potential sexual morality violation (non-sexual, heterosexual, homosexual) and rights violation (no harm, indirect harm, direct harm). Judgement of rights violation mediated the effects of harm on anger. Judgements of abnormality, but not other antecedents proposed to elicit moral disgust, mediated the effects of sexual immorality on disgust.