Sex, germs, and health: pathogen-avoidance motives and health-protective behaviour

Further evidence for associations between short-term mating strategy and sexual disgust

“…Despite having very large sample sizes, we did not consistently replicate the significant correlations between pathogen disgust and SOI-R subscales previously reported by Gruijters et al (2016) and Tybur et al (2015) (see Supplemental Materials). Equivalence tests (Lakens et al, 2018) showed that the effects in our study were significantly smaller than the effect sizes that the original studies had 33% power to detect (all ps < .001, except men's behavior subscale with p = .039; see Supplemental Materials), suggesting further work is needed to determine if the correlations between SOI-R subscales and pathogen disgust reported by Gruijters et al (2016) and Tybur et al (2015) are reliable.…”

“…Unlike Gruijters et al (2016) and Tybur et al (2015), we did not find consistent evidence for associations between pathogen disgust and scores on the SOI-R (or its subscales, see supplemental materials). This discrepancy could be due to context sensitivity in these relationships; Murray et al (2013) found that the negative correlation between germ aversion and mating strategy occurred primarily when disease threat was made salient.…”

“…This discrepancy could be due to context sensitivity in these relationships; Murray et al (2013) found that the negative correlation between germ aversion and mating strategy occurred primarily when disease threat was made salient. It is possible that participants in our study had had less recent exposure to disease than had participants in Gruijters et al (2016) and Tybur et al (2015).…”

“…Al-Shawaf et al (2015) interpreted these results as evidence for specific cognitive adaptations that function to counter the high level of sexual disgust that would otherwise prevent individuals from adopting a short-term mating strategy. Gruijters et al (2016) previously reported that people scoring high on the pathogen disgust scored lower on behavior subscale of the SOI-R. Tybur et al (2015) previously reported that people scoring high on the pathogen disgust scored lower on attitude subscale of the SOI-R. Thus, evidence for a relationship between mating strategy and disgust sensitivity that is specific to the domain of sexual disgust is equivocal.…”

Disgust Trumps Lust: Women’s Disgust and Attraction Towards Men Is Unaffected by Sexual Arousal

“…We did not find that any individual difference variables (age, pathogen disgust sensitivity, recent illness, relationship status, oral contraception, conception risk) influenced disgust or attractiveness, although previous research has (Curtis et al, 2004;DeBruine, 2014;Fessler & Navarrete, 2003;Fleischman, 2014;Gruijters, Tybur, Ruiter, & Massar, 2016;Park, van Leeuwen, & Stephen, 2012). The fact that we did not find a link between recent illness and disgust might be because we employed only explicit measures, while other studies have found this link only on implicit measures (Lund & Boggero, 2014;Miller & Maner, 2011).…”