Selective effects of excessive engagement in health-related behaviours on disgust propensity

Abstract

The present study examined the extent to which engagement in health-related behaviours modulate disgust propensity, a purportedly stable personality trait. Participants were randomised into a health behaviour (n = 30) or control condition (n = 30). After a baseline period, participants in the health behaviour condition spent one week actively engaging in a clinically representative array of health-related behaviours on a daily basis, followed by a second week-long baseline period. Participants in the control condition monitored their normal use of health behaviours. Compared to control participants, those in the health behaviour condition reported significantly greater increases in disgust propensity after the health behaviour manipulation. This effect was most robust for contamination disgust propensity and remained significant when controlling for changes in health anxiety and disease fear. In contrast, self-disgust and anxiety sensitivity did not significantly differ between the two groups as a function of the health behaviour manipulation. Mediational analyses were consistent with the hypothesis that changes in the frequency of health-related behaviours, but not changes in health anxiety and disease fear, mediated the effects of the experimental manipulation on changes in contamination disgust propensity. These findings suggest that the purportedly stable personality trait of disgust propensity can be modulated by excessive engagement in health-related behaviours.

Is Heightened Disgust Propensity Truly a Risk Factor for Contamination-Related Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder?

“…This finding is in contrast with the traditional view of DP as a stable personality trait and suggest that the construct have both time-varying and time-invariant components. This view is consistent with previous research showing that excessive engagement in health-related safety behaviors (i.e., hand washing) does significantly increase DP (Olatunji, 2015). These findings also raise the possibility that elevated DP in C-OCD may be a consequence rather than a cause of the disorder.…”

“…Although treatment outcome research suggests that targeting DP during treatment may result in improvements in OCD symptoms, longitudinal research has provided mixed evidence on the extent to which DP causes the development of OCD. Although DP has traditionally been conceptualized as a trait-like personality characteristic, Olatunji (2015) found that selective engagement in health-related behaviors significantly increased DP. This finding suggests that DP is indeed malleable and an alternative hypothesis may be that the presence of OCD symptoms leads to an increase in DP, or at least that DP and OCD symptoms influence each other in a reciprocal fashion similar to the effect observed with other trait-like variables (e.g.…”

Is Disgust Proneness Associated With Anxiety and Related Disorders? A Qualitative Review and Meta-Analysis of Group Comparison and Correlational Studies

“…Such vigilance is often coupled with maladaptive coping strategies that paradoxically increase levels of disgust proneness. Indeed, research has shown that excessive engagement in safety behaviors like hand washing significantly increases disgust proneness (Olatunji, 2015) and the link between disgust proneness and hand washing is mediated by danger expectancies about disease (Thorpe, Barnett, Friend, & Nottingham, 2011).…”

Longitudinal relationships between COVID-19 preventative behaviors and perceived vulnerability to disease

“…In other words, although we know that health anxiety is positively correlated with engagement in these behaviors, far less is known about whether each predicts the future occurrence of the other. Outside of an epidemic, one exception is a longitudinal study by Olatunji (2015) in which engagement in health behaviors related to subsequent increases in disgust propensity. However, the extent to which these longitudinal relationships exist in the context of global pandemic remains unknown.…”