Elsevier

Appetite

Volume 46, Issue 1, January 2006, Pages 75-85
Appetite

Research Report
“Ugh! That's disgusting!”: Identification of the characteristics of foods underlying rejections based on disgust

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.appet.2005.09.001Get rights and content

Abstract

Previous research has demonstrated that individuals' beliefs about the disgusting properties of foods play a central role in predicting willingness to eat novel foods of either animal or nonanimal origin (Martins & Pliner, in press). The present study aimed to identify what characteristics of foods make individuals perceive them as disgusting. In this study, participants read a set of scenarios designed to depict potentially disgusting foods; participants in Sample 1 rated the perceived disgustingness of the foods while participants in Sample 2 rated the foods on a variety of attributes relevant to theoretical conceptions of disgust. Multidimensional scaling revealed two dimensions, aversive textural properties of the foods and reminders of livingness/animalness, that accounted for most of the variability in ratings of perceived disgustingness of the foods depicted in the scenarios. Implications for our current conceptualization of disgust are examined.

Section snippets

Overview of food-related disgust

Disgust has been considered to be a basic emotion since Darwin (Darwin, 1965, cited in Rozin, Haidt, & McCauley, 1993). It is currently recognized by emotion theorists as one of the six or seven “core” emotions (Lzard, C. E. (1991)., Rozin et al., 1993, Tomkins, S. (1963)). Like other basic emotions, disgust has a characteristic facial expression, a specific physiological state (nausea), a behavioral component (distancing of oneself from the offensive object), and a characteristic feeling state

Overview

We used multidimensional scaling (MDS), a statistical technique designed to identify the dimensions that best account for the similarity/dissimilarity among ratings of stimuli. These dimensions represent latent variables that influence the object ratings. In order to interpret these latent variables, we had another set of participants rate the stimuli on a variety of attributes, and we then regressed scores representing locations on the identified dimensions over the means (collapsed over

Participants

Participants were 23 male and 46 female (one participant did not report her/his gender) University of Toronto students between the ages of 18 and 40.

Food stimuli

The twenty-four scenarios, used in sample 1, served as the stimuli for this sample of participants as well.

Measures

To indicate their beliefs about the specific characteristics of the foods depicted in the 24 scenarios, participants rated each on 14, 7-point bipolar scales. The endpoints for these scales were:

  • 1.

    not at all slimy…extremely slimy

  • 2.

    reminds me of

Familiarity

Familiarity ratings of the animal and nonanimal foods made by participants in Sample 1, were calculated, collapsing across scenarios and participants. The animal foods received a mean familiarity rating of 4.84 and nonanimal foods received a mean familiarity rating of 4.92. These ratings of familiarity are a little lower than the ratings that familiar animal and nonanimal foods received in other studies (e.g. study 1, Martins and Pliner (in press) Manimal=6.76, Mnonanimal=6.83), but are much

Discussion

The purpose of this investigation was to identify the factors underlying disgust reactions to animal and nonanimal foods. After reviewing the disgust literature, we identified12 categories of potential disgust elicitors; participants in Sample 1 rated the foods in these scenarios on their disgustingness and other disgust attributes (i.e. oral incorporation and nausea) while participants in Sample 2 rated the foods in these scenarios on a variety of attributes that had the potential to be

References (37)

  • P. Rozin et al.

    The psychological categorization of foods and non-foods: A preliminary taxonomy of food rejections

    Appetite

    (1980)
  • W.H. Ahearn et al.

    An assessment of food acceptance in children with autism or pervasive developmental disorder not otherwise specified

    Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders

    (2001)
  • A. Angyal

    Disgust and related aversions

    Journal of Personality and Social Psychology

    (1941)
  • L.L. Birch

    Effects of peer models food choices and eating behaviors on preschoolers food preferences

    Child Development

    (1980)
  • D.A. Booth

    Sensory influences on food intake

    Nutrition Reviews

    (1990)
  • A.E. Fallon et al.

    The psychological bases of food rejections in humans

    Ecology of Food and Nutrition

    (1983)
  • Lzard, C. E. (1991). The psychology of emotions (pp. 257–268). New York: Plenum...
  • C.R. Johnson et al.

    Antecedent manipulation in the treatment of primary solid food refusal

    Behavior Modification

    (1993)
  • Cited by (130)

    View all citing articles on Scopus
    View full text