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The Impact of the Covid-19 Pandemic on Disgust Sensitivity

There have been few tests of whether exposure to naturalistic or experimental disease-threat inductions alter disgust sensitivity, although it has been hypothesized that this should occur as part of disgust’s disease avoidance function. In the current study, we asked Macquarie university students to...

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Autores principales: Stevenson, Richard J., Saluja, Supreet, Case, Trevor I.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7854913/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33551913
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.600761
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author Stevenson, Richard J.
Saluja, Supreet
Case, Trevor I.
author_facet Stevenson, Richard J.
Saluja, Supreet
Case, Trevor I.
author_sort Stevenson, Richard J.
collection PubMed
description There have been few tests of whether exposure to naturalistic or experimental disease-threat inductions alter disgust sensitivity, although it has been hypothesized that this should occur as part of disgust’s disease avoidance function. In the current study, we asked Macquarie university students to complete measures of disgust sensitivity, perceived vulnerability to disease (PVD), hand hygiene behavior and impulsivity, during Australia’s Covid-19 pandemic self-quarantine (lockdown) period, in March/April 2020. These data were then compared to earlier Macquarie university, and other local, and overseas student cohorts, to determine if disgust sensitivity and the other measures, were different in the lockdown sample. The most consistent finding in the lockdown sample was of higher core disgust sensitivity (Cohen’s d = 0.4), with some evidence of greater germ aversion on the PVD, and an increase in hand and food-related hygiene, but with little change in impulsivity. The consistency with which greater core disgust sensitivity was observed, suggests exposure to a highly naturalistic disease threat is a plausible cause. Greater disgust sensitivity may have several functional benefits (e.g., hand and food-related hygiene) and may arise implicitly from the threat posed by the Covid-19 pandemic.
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spelling pubmed-78549132021-02-04 The Impact of the Covid-19 Pandemic on Disgust Sensitivity Stevenson, Richard J. Saluja, Supreet Case, Trevor I. Front Psychol Psychology There have been few tests of whether exposure to naturalistic or experimental disease-threat inductions alter disgust sensitivity, although it has been hypothesized that this should occur as part of disgust’s disease avoidance function. In the current study, we asked Macquarie university students to complete measures of disgust sensitivity, perceived vulnerability to disease (PVD), hand hygiene behavior and impulsivity, during Australia’s Covid-19 pandemic self-quarantine (lockdown) period, in March/April 2020. These data were then compared to earlier Macquarie university, and other local, and overseas student cohorts, to determine if disgust sensitivity and the other measures, were different in the lockdown sample. The most consistent finding in the lockdown sample was of higher core disgust sensitivity (Cohen’s d = 0.4), with some evidence of greater germ aversion on the PVD, and an increase in hand and food-related hygiene, but with little change in impulsivity. The consistency with which greater core disgust sensitivity was observed, suggests exposure to a highly naturalistic disease threat is a plausible cause. Greater disgust sensitivity may have several functional benefits (e.g., hand and food-related hygiene) and may arise implicitly from the threat posed by the Covid-19 pandemic. Frontiers Media S.A. 2021-01-20 /pmc/articles/PMC7854913/ /pubmed/33551913 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.600761 Text en Copyright © 2021 Stevenson, Saluja and Case. http://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
Stevenson, Richard J.
Saluja, Supreet
Case, Trevor I.
The Impact of the Covid-19 Pandemic on Disgust Sensitivity
title The Impact of the Covid-19 Pandemic on Disgust Sensitivity
title_full The Impact of the Covid-19 Pandemic on Disgust Sensitivity
title_fullStr The Impact of the Covid-19 Pandemic on Disgust Sensitivity
title_full_unstemmed The Impact of the Covid-19 Pandemic on Disgust Sensitivity
title_short The Impact of the Covid-19 Pandemic on Disgust Sensitivity
title_sort impact of the covid-19 pandemic on disgust sensitivity
topic Psychology
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7854913/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33551913
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.600761
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