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Disgust sensitivity in early pregnancy as a response to high pathogen risk

INTRODUCTION: Considered a part of the behavioral immune system (BIS), disgust sensitivity is expected to be adjusting as a response to the actual level of the environmental health risks. METHODS: In this preregistered study, we tested the hypothesis that disgust sensitivity would be higher during t...

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Autores principales: Kaňková, Šárka, Takács, Lea, Hlaváčová, Jana, Calda, Pavel, Monk, Catherine, Havlíček, Jan
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10009253/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36923149
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1015927
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author Kaňková, Šárka
Takács, Lea
Hlaváčová, Jana
Calda, Pavel
Monk, Catherine
Havlíček, Jan
author_facet Kaňková, Šárka
Takács, Lea
Hlaváčová, Jana
Calda, Pavel
Monk, Catherine
Havlíček, Jan
author_sort Kaňková, Šárka
collection PubMed
description INTRODUCTION: Considered a part of the behavioral immune system (BIS), disgust sensitivity is expected to be adjusting as a response to the actual level of the environmental health risks. METHODS: In this preregistered study, we tested the hypothesis that disgust sensitivity would be higher during the COVID-19 pandemic compared to the pre-pandemic period in pregnant women. In this between-subject study with a longitudinal trend design, we administered the Disgust Scale-Revised to 200 pregnant women before the pandemic and to 350 pregnant women during the pandemic. RESULTS: We found a small but significant effect of the pandemic on disgust sensitivity, such that higher disgust sensitivity was found in women pregnant during the pandemic. This effect was stronger in primiparae, however, the interaction between parity and the pandemic period was not significant. Disgust sensitivity decreased with age. No differences in terms of nausea and vomiting were found between the women pregnant before and during the pandemic. DISCUSSION: Our findings indicate that although BIS is presumed to function as a complex mechanism to prevent health-threatening behaviors, its activation in pregnant women during the COVID-19 pandemic is rather weak.
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spelling pubmed-100092532023-03-14 Disgust sensitivity in early pregnancy as a response to high pathogen risk Kaňková, Šárka Takács, Lea Hlaváčová, Jana Calda, Pavel Monk, Catherine Havlíček, Jan Front Psychol Psychology INTRODUCTION: Considered a part of the behavioral immune system (BIS), disgust sensitivity is expected to be adjusting as a response to the actual level of the environmental health risks. METHODS: In this preregistered study, we tested the hypothesis that disgust sensitivity would be higher during the COVID-19 pandemic compared to the pre-pandemic period in pregnant women. In this between-subject study with a longitudinal trend design, we administered the Disgust Scale-Revised to 200 pregnant women before the pandemic and to 350 pregnant women during the pandemic. RESULTS: We found a small but significant effect of the pandemic on disgust sensitivity, such that higher disgust sensitivity was found in women pregnant during the pandemic. This effect was stronger in primiparae, however, the interaction between parity and the pandemic period was not significant. Disgust sensitivity decreased with age. No differences in terms of nausea and vomiting were found between the women pregnant before and during the pandemic. DISCUSSION: Our findings indicate that although BIS is presumed to function as a complex mechanism to prevent health-threatening behaviors, its activation in pregnant women during the COVID-19 pandemic is rather weak. Frontiers Media S.A. 2023-02-27 /pmc/articles/PMC10009253/ /pubmed/36923149 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1015927 Text en Copyright © 2023 Kaňková, Takács, Hlaváčová, Calda, Monk and Havlíček. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Psychology
Kaňková, Šárka
Takács, Lea
Hlaváčová, Jana
Calda, Pavel
Monk, Catherine
Havlíček, Jan
Disgust sensitivity in early pregnancy as a response to high pathogen risk
title Disgust sensitivity in early pregnancy as a response to high pathogen risk
title_full Disgust sensitivity in early pregnancy as a response to high pathogen risk
title_fullStr Disgust sensitivity in early pregnancy as a response to high pathogen risk
title_full_unstemmed Disgust sensitivity in early pregnancy as a response to high pathogen risk
title_short Disgust sensitivity in early pregnancy as a response to high pathogen risk
title_sort disgust sensitivity in early pregnancy as a response to high pathogen risk
topic Psychology
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10009253/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36923149
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1015927
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