Age‐related differences in self‐reported disgust toward core disgust, sex‐related, and food stimuli

Abstract

Introduction While disgust is functional in preventing contagion from pathogens, it also plays a role in various psychopathologies. Disgust responses toward dirt, bodily secretions, certain types of food, and sexual stimuli typically emerge during (early) childhood. However, there is a lack of research on how disgust develops. This cross‐sectional study investigated whether there are age‐related differences in subjective, self‐reported disgust between early and late adolescence and whether there are differences for distinctive types of disgust (core‐disgust, sex‐related, food‐related). Methods Using an online survey, 240 Dutch children (116 female, 124 male) aged 9 through 16 years rated the extent to which they found the different types of stimuli disgusting or not on a VAS scale. Results and Conclusions The results showed that only the disgust responses to sex‐related stimuli decreased with age, whereas disgust toward the other categories did not show any age‐related differences. Overall girls reported somewhat higher disgust ratings than boys for sex‐related stimuli, but not for the other categories. The present study offers important new angles for future research, which might further disentangle the mechanisms through which the changes occur.

Sexual Arousal and Sexual Pain Disorders in Women

“…Interestingly, sexual stimuli and behaviours seem to be prominently disgusting during the pre-pubertal stage of development, which explains why prepubertal children often feel disgusted when witnessing for example adults French-kissing and exchanging saliva, a potential contaminant [36,37]. Once puberty has started, however, the hormonal changes trigger a natural inclination toward sexual excitation.…”