Microbes, mating, and morality: Individual differences in three functional domains of disgust.

Abstract

What is the function of disgust? Whereas traditional models have suggested that disgust serves to protect the self or neutralize reminders of our animal nature, an evolutionary perspective suggests that disgust functions to solve 3 qualitatively different adaptive problems related to pathogen avoidance, mate choice, and social interaction. The authors investigated this 3-domain model of disgust across 4 studies and examined how sensitivity to these functional domains relates to individual differences in other psychological constructs. Consistent with their predictions, factor analyses demonstrated that disgust sensitivity partitions into domains related to pathogens, sexuality, and morality. Further, sensitivity to the 3 domains showed predictable differentiation based on sex, perceived vulnerability to disease, psychopathic tendencies, and Big 5 personality traits. In exploring these 3 domains of disgust, the authors introduce a new measure of disgust sensitivity. Appreciation of the functional heterogeneity of disgust has important implications for research on individual differences in disgust sensitivity, emotion, clinical impairments, and neuroscience.

Introversion and human-contaminant disgust sensitivity predict personal space

“…From the Three-Domain Disgust Scale (Tybur et al, 2009), seven items measuring Pathogen Disgust were used (α = .66). Participants rated items such as "Stepping on dog poop."…”

“…The pathogen disgust subscale of the Three-Domain Disgust Scale (TDDS; Tybur, Lieberman, & Griskevicius, 2009) was developed specifically to assess individual differences in disgust sensitivity pertaining to the behavioral immune system (i.e., the motive to avoid sources of pathogens). Two other subscales from the TDDS measure sexual disgust and moral disgust, and these correlate only modestly with pathogen disgust.…”

Mating strategy, disgust, and food neophobia

“…The revised disgust scale proposes three facets of disgust: core disgust, contamination-based disgust, and animalreminder disgust. The first two factors do not show sufficient evidence of conceptual or statistical distinctiveness (Al-Shawaf & Lewis, 2013;Tybur, Lieberman, & Griskevicius, 2009), and the third factor, animalreminder disgust, is conceptually implausible from an evolutionary perspective (Al-Shawaf & Lewis, 2013;Fessler & Navarrete, 2005) -a view endorsed by nearly all disgust researchers (e.g., Chapman, Kim, Susskind, & Anderson, 2009;Curtis et al, 2004;Haidt et al, 1994;Tybur et al, 2013).…”

“…The recently-developed Three Domain Disgust Scale (TDDS), on the other hand, assesses three different kinds of disgust: pathogen, sexual, and moral disgust (Tybur et al, 2009). There is compelling empirical evidence of the existence and distinctness of these three different types of disgust: the different cues that evoke them, the distinct cognitive mechanisms underlying them, the different behaviors they motivate, and their unique profiles of correlations with other psychological variables (Tybur et al, 2009(Tybur et al, , 2013.…”

“…There is compelling empirical evidence of the existence and distinctness of these three different types of disgust: the different cues that evoke them, the distinct cognitive mechanisms underlying them, the different behaviors they motivate, and their unique profiles of correlations with other psychological variables (Tybur et al, 2009(Tybur et al, , 2013.…”