The potentiating effect of disgust sensitivity on the relationship between disgust propensity and mental contamination

2015 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
pp. 114-119 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rosemond Travis ◽  
Thomas A. Fergus
2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fieke Maria Antoinet Wagemans ◽  
Mark John Brandt ◽  
Marcel Zeelenberg

Disgust sensitivity is more strongly related to moral judgments in the purity domain than to moral judgments in other moral domains. While this finding highlights the distinctiveness of moral domains, anti-modularity accounts suggest that the relationship is caused by the relative weirdness of purity transgressions and come to the conclusion that moral domains do not represent distinct mechanisms. In two studies (total N = 2,307), we test whether transgression weirdness accounts for disgust sensitivity’s stronger association with moral judgments of the purity as compared to other moral domains, but find little evidence for this claim. The relationship between disgust sensitivity and moral judgments of purity even remains when taking into account both (perceived) weirdness and (perceived) harmfulness of moral transgressions. These studies show that transgression weirdness and harmfulness cannot explain the disgust sensitivity–purity link, contradicting predictions following from popular anti-modularity accounts.


2016 ◽  
Vol 33 (S1) ◽  
pp. S202-S202
Author(s):  
E. Powell

High disgust sensitivity and poor cognitive flexibility have been independently identified as contributing factors in the aetiology of obsessive-compulsive disorder. This study looks at the relationship between contamination fear and disgust sensitivity in a non-clinical population. In particular, at whether two moderating factors, cognitive flexibility and emotional reappraisal, have a buffering influence. One hundred participants from an undergraduate population completed a battery of questionnaires which rated their disgust and level of contamination fear. They also completed a set-shifting task to assess cognitive flexibility and an emotion regulation questionnaire. The mean age of the sample was 21.4 years with 62% of the sample population being female. SPSS 16 was used to correlate the main variables using Pearson's correlation and moderated regression, using MODPROBE, was used for analysis. Results confirmed previous findings that high disgust sensitivity is significantly associated with contamination fear (P < 0.01). In addition to this, both cognitive flexibility and emotional reappraisal reduced the influence that disgust has on an individual's contamination fear. Cognitive flexibility and emotion reappraisal were not found to be significantly correlated to each other (P = 0.511), which suggest that these variables moderate the relationship between disgust and contamination fear independently of each other. Individuals with poor cognitive flexibility and/or poor emotional reappraisal were found to have high levels of contamination fear, which suggests that these two variables may attenuate the relationship between disgust and contamination fear. Future implications of these findings have been discussed although further research is needed to confirm these conclusions in a clinical population.Disclosure of interestThe author has not supplied his/her declaration of competing interest.


2020 ◽  
Vol 29 (3) ◽  
pp. 631-648
Author(s):  
Nikola Rokvić

Disgust represents a feeling of revulsion and is manifested as a response to adverse stimuli and indicates a motivation to withdraw from the stimulus. Several attempts were made to measure disgust, the earliest being the Disgust Sensitivity Scale (Haidt et al., 1994) that relied on responses to disgust elicitors, and the Disgust Propensity and Sensitivity Scale (DPSS, Cavanagh &amp; Davey, 2000) that focused on the feeling itself, not on the strength of the reaction to specific disgust elicitors. There are two proposed models of the DPSS, one with two subscales, disgust propensity (DP) and disgust sensitivity (DS), and the other with three subscales where the self-focused/ruminative disgust (SFR) split from DS. This study aimed to validate the Serbian translation of the scale. We used two samples, a student sample (N = 437) and a social network user sample (N = 344). We used confirmatory factor analysis in both samples and the yielded results have shown that the three-factor solution is superior. The internal consistency of the subscales was marginally acceptable, while SFR subscale alpha value lagged in the social network user sample. Significant gender differences in subscale values were detected as expected, adding to the scale validity. Also, DP and DS registered a weak positive correlation with trait Neuroticism, negative affect, stress, depression, and anxiety. These results will further our claims that our translation of the DPSS is valid. In conclusion, we believe that the Serbian translation of the 12 item DPSS scale is viable for use in future research on this subject.


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