The Emotion of Disgust among Medical and Psychology Students

Abstract

<jats:p>Disgust evolved as a way to protect one&amp;rsquo;s self from illness. DS-R measures disgust propensity of three kinds of disgust (Core, Animal Reminder and Contamination). Although the DS-R scale was refined mainly with young and largely female student population its impact on educational orientation has not been assessed. In the present study we examined the DS-R scoring and the choice of postgraduate studies in medical (n= 94) and psychology (n= 97) students. They responded to an anonymous web-based survey and completed the DS-R and a questionnaire on their demographics and plans for postgraduate studies. Female students outnumbered males (3:1) and scored higher in Total DS-R score (median: 59 vs. 50, p&amp;lt;0.05). Psychology students scored higher in all three kinds of disgust (p&amp;lt;0.05), indicating a higher level of disease avoidance. Medical students willing to follow Internal Medicine scored higher in Core Disgust (p&amp;lt;0.05) while psychology students willing to study Experimental Psychology scored lower in Animal Reminder subscale (p&amp;lt;0.001). Also, the higher the psychology students scored in Core Disgust scale the higher was the probability to choose Experimental Psychology. In conclusion, disgust propensity as rated by DS-R differentiates medical from psychology students and is also related to orientation preferences in postgraduate studies.</jats:p>