Even unpleasant reminders that you are an animal need not disgust you.

Abstract

Three studies (Ns = 200, 400, 400) tested the hypothesis that we humans feel disgust when reminded of our animal nature. Participants verbally rated their disgust reaction to pictures of humans engaged in various unpleasant actions. For pictures of events that present danger or suffering, accompanied by an explicit and vivid reminder that animals face the same situation, participants reported fear and sadness rather than disgust. For pictures of events that present a norm violation, an explicit animal reminder (relative to a human picture alone) did not lead to a consequent increment in disgust. For pictures of events that present a physically disgusting contamination, an explicit animal reminder (relative to a human picture alone) led to a decrement in disgust. Thus, not all unpleasant animal reminders are disgusting. Some disgusting things may remind us of our animal nature, but they are not disgusting because they do so. (PsycINFO Database Record

Ugliness Is in the Gut of the Beholder

“…When 18. Recently, Kollareth and Russell (2018) have provided evidence to suggest that unpleasant reminders that animals and humans are similar decrease an object's disgustingness. Given that Kollareth and Russell did not measure death-related thoughts, as previous research suggests are crucial, and it seems that their human-animal similarity prime produced contrast effects, the question of how exactly reminders that we are animals contribute to an object's tendency to give rise to disgust requires further investigation.…”

Moral disciplining: The cognitive and evolutionary foundations of puritanical morality

“…Empirical studies have examined this specific hypothesis and conclude: Animal reminders per se are not disgusting (Kollareth & Russell, 2017). Some disgusting things may remind us of our animal nature, but they are not disgusting because they do so (Kollareth & Russell, 2018).…”