Pandemic elevates sensitivity to moral disgust but not pathogen disgust

Olfactory self-inspection: Own body odour provides cues to one's health and hygiene status

Olfactory self-inspection has been observed in various mammals, including humans. This behaviour can help individuals to monitor own state, including health and hygiene. This study's aim was to explore the frequency of sniffing particular body parts and investigate possible gender differences. Further, we tested a possible function of this behaviour, namely monitoring health and hygiene, by investigating associations between the frequency of self-sniffing and health, hygiene, and disgust sensitivity. Respondents completed an online survey on self-sniffing behaviour, health status, hygiene habits, and disgust sensitivity. Self-sniffing behaviour was investigated using a purpose-built inventory which explored the incidence and frequency of sniffing different parts of own body. Principal Component Analysis identified three main axes of self-sniffing behaviour: Social acceptability self-inspection, Intimate self-inspection, and Cosmetic self-inspection. Our results further show that respondents with lower standards of hygienic habits engage significantly more in intimate self-inspection (sniffing body parts such as genitals, anus, or navel). Interestingly, individuals who reported more frequent health issues sniff more frequently areas such as the armpits, feet, or own breath (Social acceptability self-inspection), probably to check for possible changes in smell due to illness. Our results indicate that olfactory self-inspection probably has several functions depending on the location from which the smell originates.

Human emotional evaluation of ancestral and modern threats: fear, disgust, and anger

Introduction

Animal and human ancestors developed complex physiological and behavioral response systems to cope with two types of threats: immediate physical harm from predators or conspecifics, triggering fear, and the risk of infections from parasites and pathogens leading to the evolution of the behavioral immune system with disgust as the key emotion. Integration of the evolutionary concepts of the fear module and behavioral immune systems has been infrequent, despite the significant survival advantages of disgust in various contexts. Studies comparing attention to ancestral and modern threats accompanied by fear have yielded ambiguous results and what qualifies as salient modern disgusting stimuli remains unclear. We do not know whether disgust or the behavioral immune system, as inherent aspects of human psychology, have adapted to safeguard us from pandemic risks or poisoning by modern toxic substances.

Methods

To test these effects, we have developed a survey comprised of 60 short vignettes describing threats evoking fear and disgust belonging to one of the three main categories of threats: (1) ancestral (phylogenetic), (2) modern (ontogenetic), and (3) pandemics of airborne disease. Each vignette was evaluated on a 7-point Likert scale based on fear, disgust, and anger. In total, 660 respondents completed the survey. The data were analysed using a factor analysis and general linear model with the respondent as a random factor.

Results

The results show that the strongest fear is triggered by modern threats (electricity, car accidents), while the highest disgust is evoked by ancient threats (body waste products, worms, etc.). Interestingly, disgust does not respond to modern threat stimuli such as toxic substances or radioactivity as these evoke mainly fear and anger. Finally, a distinct response pattern was found for pandemic threats, in which both fear (e.g., of disease and death) and disgust (e.g., of used face masks) are employed.

Discussion

Our study offers valuable insights into the emotional responses to ancestral and modern threats and their adaptation to pandemic challenges. Ancestral threats are not always more powerful stimuli than adequate threats of the modern type, but they function specifically. Thus, snakes and heights as fear-inducing ancestral threats form separate factors in a multivariate analysis, whereas all ancestral disgust stimuli group together. The threat of a pandemic forms a specific category and people process it emotionally and cognitively. These insights contribute to our understanding of human psychology and behavior in an ever-changing world.