Attention bias for disgust

doi:10.1016/S0887-6185(02)00171-8

Journal of Anxiety Disorders

Volume 16, Issue 5, 2002, Pages 529-541

https://doi.org/10.1016/S0887-6185(02)00171-8 Get rights and content

Abstract

Disgust was originally theorized as a defense against the oral incorporation of offensive objects. Recent research suggests disgust serves as a defense against a wider range of objects and situations in the environment, and may contribute to phobic avoidance. As such, disgust sensitivity was explored for attention and memory biases. Using a sample of 60 undergraduates, an attention bias towards disgust words on a Stroop Color-naming Task was found across all subjects following an emotional priming task. When participants were primed with disgust stories, disgust sensitivity was positively related to latencies on disgust words on a Stroop Color-naming Task, while unrelated in the other groups (fear or neutral primed). Similarly, those same participants demonstrated a positive correlation between their disgust sensitivity and the number of disgust words recalled following the Stroop Task. This, along with the findings of relationships between disgust sensitivity and contamination fears related to obsessive–compulsiveness and eating related symptomatology call for further empirical investigation into the role that disgust plays in psychopathology.

Section snippets

Attention bias for disgust

Darwin (1872/1965) described disgust as something offensive to the taste, and that its expression consists of movements in order to expel food from the mouth. The notion of oral incorporation stems from the recognition that the universal facial expression of disgust centers around the mouth, with the opening of the mouth and closing of the nares. This facial expression serves to prevent odor input and to reject food that is already in the mouth (Rozin & Fallon, 1987). While disgust has been

Participants

The participants were 60 undergraduate students at Fordham University. All participants received course credit. They included 38 females (63.3%) and 22 males (36.7%). They ranged in age from 18.1 to 24.5 years, with a mean age of 19.2 years (S.D.=.9 years). They included 2 Asians (3.3%), 45 Caucasians (75.0%), 10 Hispanics (16.7%), and 3 who described themselves as “other” (5.0%). Their religious affiliations were as follows: 45 considered themselves Catholic (75.0%); 2 considered themselves

Order effects

As indicated by an independent samples t test, there was no significant difference in response latencies of disgust related words between those subjects who were administered the surveys first (M=821.99 ms) and those subjects who were administered the Stroop Task first (M=862.31 ms), t(58)=1.53, P>.05. Therefore, there was no priming effect of the DSS to latency on disgust words of the Stroop Color-naming Task. Furthermore, this lack of order effect was evident across priming stories.

Attention bias and its relation to disgust sensitivity

There was an

Discussion

The finding that there was an attention bias towards disgust words across all subjects is contrary to the findings of Williams et al. (1996) which found no difference in the color-naming latency between threat and nonthreat words for control subjects. However, several points must be made in this regard. First, these results are contrary only if disgust is truly a defensive emotion. Second, and in support of the findings of Williams et al. (1996), there was no difference between the color-naming

Acknowledgements

This research formed the basis of a predoctoral research project conducted by Michael Charash. We would like to thank Paul Rozin for helpful comments on an earlier version of this manuscript.

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Attention bias for disgust

Abstract

Section snippets

Attention bias for disgust

Participants

Order effects

Attention bias and its relation to disgust sensitivity

Discussion

Acknowledgements

Clinical Psychology Review

Personality and Individual Differences

Behavior Research and Therapy

Behaviour Research and Therapy

Advances in Behavior Research and Therapy

Behaviour Research and Therapy

Personality and Individual Differences

On the control of automatic processes: a Parallel Distributed Processing account of the Stroop effect

Psychological Review