disgust Flashcards
what is disgust?
- can be seen in reaction to certain foods or animals
- developed from distaste which is food rejection triggered by unpleasant tastes
what is the history of disgust?
- ability to detect and expel bitter food is evolutionarily old
- OG forms of disgust thought to centre on defending from infection via oral route
is disgust a reaction to a threat of disease?
- YES
- disgust is a disease-avoidant response
- ToD and infection shaped disgust response
why do we think that disgust is a reaction to a threat of disease?
- many early definitions centre on mouth or imagined ingestion
- facial expressions are functional
- psychological component related to ingestion (nausea)
how do spiders relate to the experience of disgust + how is this evolutionary argument challenged?
- spiders and snakes evoke disgust
- challenged by co-occurrence with non-poisonous animals
- people are scared of spiders bcos they can be poisonous but are also scared of slugs, snails which themselves are not poisonous
what did Davey (1992) find about spiders and disgust?
- spider phobics could not provide consensus on the scary features of spiders
- increased tendency to fear other disgust evoking animals
explain the blue sweater study by Nemeroff & Rozin (1994)?
- asked pp’s how they would feel wearing a new soft blue bulky sweatshirt from -100 to 100
- then asked follow-up question where they asked pp’s to imagine this jumper belongs to someone it
- person that was imagined wearing this was someone they liked, disliked, attracted to or thought was evil
explain the blue sweater study by Nemeroff & Rozin (1994): results and conclusions?
- decrease in ratings for evil and disliked people
- most negative ratings for evil
- people gave all different answers as to why they didn’t want to wear it
- results described under the magical law of contagion which is all spiritual
- could be explained by MORAL DISGUST but wearing jumper outwardly means nothing as researchers said no one would know you wore it
what are the 5 different types of disgust?
- core disgust
- blood/injury disgust
- sexual
- interpersonal
- moral
what makes a category of disgust physical?
elicited by concrete stimuli
what does core disgust cause and what is it associated with?
- feelings of nausea of stomach contractions
- reliable association with OCD
what does blood-injury disgust cause and what is it correlated with?
- serves disease-avoidance function as contact with blood or cuts = infection
- causes light-headedness, fainting or cardiovascular changes
- more correlation with B-I-I phobias
what is moral disgust and its link to anger?
- disgust triggered by violation of social norms and moral values
- these behaviours might trigger anger but disgust might serve a protective function in motivating avoidance from harmful things
- example of exaptation
- new role: avoid people who violate social norms and might be harmful to interact with
moral disgust and Nazi armband study?
- pp’s asked to wear NA on top of or under shirt but touching skin
- more chose under
- when asked why, reasons supported reputation management account
- concern for outward reputation
- people motivated to avoid immoral stimuli as concerned about being seen to associate with them
what is the link between disgust and OCD?
- contamination worries = common theme associated with OCD
- argued that OCD might represent dysfunction in disgust appraisal process where perceiving things as harmful or contaminated is increased
- appraisals might encourage compulsive avoidance or neutralising behaviours to alleviate distress/disgust
