Disgust versus Lust: Exploring the Interactions of Disgust and Fear with Sexual Arousal in Women

Virtual Reality Could Help Assess Sexual Aversion Disorder

Virtual reality (VR) may improve our understanding of sexual dysfunctions' manifestations, although research in this area remains limited. This study assessed the potential use of a VR Behavior Avoidance Test (VR-BAT) as a tool for examining the clinical features of Sexual Aversion Disorder (SAD): the experience of fear, disgust, and avoidance when facing sexual cues/contexts. A sample of 55 adults (≥ 18y) with (n = 27) and without SAD (n = 28) completed a self-report measure of sexual avoidance. Their anxiety, disgust, electrodermal activity, heart rate, and visual and behavioral avoidance were then examined during two VR-BATs involving sexual or non-sexual stimuli. Mixed repeated measures ANOVAs, t-tests, and correlational analyses were performed. Results showed that individuals in the SAD group reported greater anxiety and disgust compared to their non-SAD counterparts during the sexual stimuli condition. Sexual avoidance scores were largely positively related to anxiety and disgust during the VR sexual condition, and moderately negatively related to the time spent touching the virtual character's genitals. This study is important given the prevalence of sexual difficulties, such as SAD, and the new research avenues offered by emerging technologies, like VR.

Effects of Ginger on Disgust, Sexual Arousal, and Sexual Engagement: A Placebo-Controlled Experiment

Sexual problems are common complaints across countries and cultures, and behavioral immune system theory suggests disgust plays an essential role in sexual functioning. The current study investigated 1) if disgust induced by sexual body fluids would reduce sexual arousal, reduce the likelihood of sexual engagement, and enhance disgust toward subsequent erotic stimuli, and 2) if the administration of ginger would affect these reactions. We administered either ginger or placebo pills to a sample of 247 participants (Mage = 21.59, SD = 2.52; 122 women) and asked them to complete either behavioral approach tasks with sexual body fluids or with neutral fluids. Next, participants viewed and responded to questions concerning erotic stimuli (nude and seminude pictures of opposite-sex models). As expected, the sexual body fluids tasks induced disgust. The elevated disgust induced by sexual body fluids tasks resulted in lower sexual arousal in women, whereas ginger consumption counteracted this inhibiting effect of disgust on sexual arousal. Disgust elicited by sexual body fluids also increased disgust toward the subsequent erotic stimuli. Ginger increased sexual arousal toward the erotic stimuli in both men and women who had completed the neutral fluids tasks. Findings provide further evidence of the role of disgust in sexual problems, and, importantly, that ginger may improve the sexual function of individuals via its sexual arousal-enhancing effect.

"Death and Love Amid the COVID-19 Pandemic": Effects of Pathogen Threats on Online Dating and Social Distancing From Life-History Strategy Perspectives

Drawing from the terror management theory (TMT) and evolutionary perspectives of Life-History Strategy, a between-subject online experiment examined the interaction effects of pre-existing death anxiety, fear-inducing media content (coronavirus threat vs. gun violence threat vs. low threat mental disorder), and intrasexual competition for mates on online dating intentions and social distancing intentions during the COVID-19 pandemic. Results indicate the interaction effects of participants' pre-experimental death anxiety and different types of fear-inducing media content on perceived fear and intention to use online dating websites/apps as well as the interaction effects of pre-experimental intrasexual competitiveness and fear-inducing media content on social distancing intention in the context of online dating. Theoretical contributions to the terror management literature and practical implications for the online dating industry are discussed.

Is Sexual Aversion a Distinct Disorder or a Trans-Diagnostic Symptom across Sexual Dysfunctions? A Latent Class Analysis

Sexual aversion disorder (SAD) is a chronic condition that impacts sexual and psychological well-being. However, the relevance of SAD as a discrete disorder remains highly debated. This study aimed to clarify the status of SAD as either a distinct disorder or a trans-diagnostic symptom shared among sexual dysfunctions. This cross-sectional study used a latent class analysis approach among a Canadian community sample (n = 1,363) to identify how patterns of SAD symptoms (i.e., sexual fear, disgust, and avoidance) emerge across different spheres of sexual functioning (i.e., desire and arousal, erection or lubrication, genito-pelvic pain, and orgasm) and examine sociodemographic and psychosexual correlates of the identified classes. Examination of fit indices suggested four classes: Sexually functional, Impaired desire and responsiveness, Sexual aversion, and Comorbid sexual dysfunctions. Sexual aversion class members were more likely to be single, had experienced sexual assault in adulthood, and report lower levels of sexual satisfaction and psychological well-being, compared to Sexually functional class members. Results suggest that SAD is a distinct clinical syndrome, while its symptoms may co-occur with other sexual dysfunctions. To ensure that the needs of people with SAD are met with tailored treatment options, future nosography might consider reclassifying SAD as a specific disorder.

Explicitness, disgust, and safe sex behavior: A message experiment with U.S. adults

Sexual health risks are challenging to communicate given the potential negative reactions of target audiences to explicit language. Grounded in research on pathogen avoidance, the current study examined the impact of varying levels of explicit language on message perceptions and safe sex behavioral intentions. U.S. adults (N = 498) were randomly assigned to view messages detailing pandemic safe sexual behavior that contained either low or high levels of explicit language. High explicit language significantly increased perceived disgust which also indirectly linked high explicit language with increased intentions to engage in safe sex behavior. Individual difference variables moderated the impact of message explicitness; dispositional hygiene disgust moderated the impact of high explicit, hygiene-focused messages on safe sex intentions. Those with relatively low levels of dispositional disgust were more positively impacted by explicit language. The results suggest the value of increased message explicitness for sexual health communication and have implications for pathogen avoidance behaviors, the behavioral immune system, and dispositional and affective forms of disgust.

Helping While Social Distancing: Pathogen Avoidance Motives Influence People's Helping Intentions during the COVID-19 Pandemic

The behavioral immune system (BIS) theory suggests that pathogen avoidance motives relate to greater behavioral avoidance against social interactions that pose potential risks of pathogen transmission. Based on the BIS theory, pathogen avoidance motives would decrease people’s helping behavior towards others. However, would pathogen avoidance motives decrease all types of helping behavior towards others during the Coronavirus disease 2019 (i.e., COVID-19) pandemic indiscriminately? In the present study, we conducted a within-subjects design to compare people’s helping intentions toward voluntary work with and without social contact. Specifically, participants (N = 1562) completed an online survey at the early stage of the COVID-19 pandemic in China measuring pathogen disgust sensitivity, state anxiety, and intentions to perform volunteer work with and without social contact. Results revealed that pathogen disgust sensitivity negatively predicted intentions to perform voluntary work with social contact yet had no influence on intentions to perform socially distanced voluntary work. Moreover, the effect of pathogen disgust sensitivity on socially distanced volunteering preference was mediated by the state anxiety people experienced during the pandemic. The findings have implications for understanding people’s helping behavior during the pandemic.

Newlywed Couples' Own and Partner Sexual Disgust Sensitivities Interact to Predict Their Marital Satisfaction Through Their Sexual Satisfaction

Sex is integral to maintaining a satisfying long-term romantic relationship such as marriage. It is thus important to identify the factors that promote sexual satisfaction in these relationships. To this end, we examined the extent to which a crucial evolved individual difference-sexual disgust sensitivity-impacts people's sexual satisfaction and relationship satisfaction. Using a two-year longitudinal study of 102 newlywed couples (204 individuals), we demonstrated that, rather than exerting main effects, the interaction of both couple members' sexual disgust sensitivities was indirectly associated with marital satisfaction through sexual satisfaction. People whose partners' sexual disgust sensitivities were relatively similar (versus dissimilar) to their own maintained higher levels of sexual satisfaction across the first two years of marriage, which was associated with similarly elevated marital satisfaction. Not only do these findings highlight the importance of integrating evolutionary perspectives and relationship science, they underscore the value of conducting dyadic research to examine the unique intersection of both couple members' characteristics for people's relationship outcomes.

The evolution of disgust for pathogen detection and avoidance

The behavioral immune system posits that disgust functions to protect animals from pathogen exposure. Therefore, cues of pathogen risk should be a primary driver influencing variation in disgust. Yet, to our knowledge, neither the relationship between current pathogen risk and disgust, nor the correlation between objective and perceived pathogen risk have been addressed using ecologically valid measures in a global sample. The current article reports two studies addressing these gaps. In Study 1, we include a global sample (n = 361) and tested the influence of both perceived pathogen exposure and an objective measure of pathogen risk-local communicable infectious disease mortality rates-on individual differences in pathogen and sexual disgust sensitivities. In Study 2, we first replicate Study 1's analyses in another large sample (n = 821), targeting four countries (US, Italy, Brazil, and India); we then replaced objective and perceived pathogen risk with variables specific to the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. In Study 1, both local infection mortality rates and perceived infection exposure predicted unique variance in pathogen and sexual disgust. In Study 2, we found that perceived infection exposure positively predicted sexual disgust, as predicted. When substituting perceived and objective SARS-CoV-2 risk in our models, perceived risk of contracting SARS-CoV-2 positively predicted pathogen and sexual disgust, and state case rates negatively predicted pathogen disgust. Further, in both studies, objective measures of risk (i.e., local infection mortality and SARS-CoV-2 rates) positively correlated with subjective measures of risk (i.e., perceived infection exposure and perceived SARS-CoV-2 risk). Ultimately, these results provide two pieces of foundational evidence for the behavioral immune system: 1) perceptions of pathogen risk accurately assay local, objective mortality risk across countries, and 2) both perceived and objective pathogen risk explain variance in disgust levels.

Up-regulating Sexual Arousal and Down-regulating Disgust while Watching Pornography: Effects on Sexual Arousal and Disgust

Sexual response occurs when sexual excitatory factors outweigh inhibitory factors. Problems with sexual arousal may occur when sexual excitation is too low and/or inhibitory influences such as feelings of disgust are too strong. To explore interventions that may help overcome decreased sexual responding, we examined if sexual responding could be amplified by instructions to up-regulate sexual arousal and/or down-regulate disgust. Women with no sexual difficulties (N = 255; µ_age = 20.55; SD = 2.23) were randomly assigned to a sexual arousal up-regulation, disgust down-regulation, or passive control condition. Participants were instructed to use the assigned regulation strategy while viewing pornography. To prevent floor effects due to low disgust responsivity in a non-clinical sample, half of the participants were presented with a prime that was designed to make the contaminating properties of sex more salient. Instruction to up-regulate sexual arousal successfully enhanced feelings of sexual arousal in the unprimed group, yet the increase in sexual arousal was not paralleled by reductions in feelings of disgust. Instruction to down-regulate disgust successfully decreased disgust; however, this decrease was not paralleled by increases in sexual arousal. Overall, findings indicate that emotion regulation techniques could facilitate affective control in sexual contexts.

Infection threat shapes our social instincts

We social animals must balance the need to avoid infections with the need to interact with conspecifics. To that end we have evolved, alongside our physiological immune system, a suite of behaviors devised to deal with potentially contagious individuals. Focusing mostly on humans, the current review describes the design and biological innards of this behavioral immune system, laying out how infection threat shapes sociality and sociality shapes infection threat. The paper shows how the danger of contagion is detected and posted to the brain; how it affects individuals’ mate choice and sex life; why it strengthens ties within groups but severs those between them, leading to hostility toward anyone who looks, smells, or behaves unusually; and how it permeates the foundation of our moral and political views. This system was already in place when agriculture and animal domestication set off a massive increase in our population density, personal connections, and interaction with other species, amplifying enormously the spread of disease. Alas, pandemics such as COVID-19 not only are a disaster for public health, but, by rousing millions of behavioral immune systems, could prove a threat to harmonious cohabitation too.

Behavioral Immune Trade-Offs: Interpersonal Value Relaxes Social Pathogen Avoidance

Behavioral-immune-system research has illuminated how people detect and avoid signs of infectious disease. But how do we regulate exposure to pathogens that produce no symptoms in their hosts? This research tested the proposition that estimates of interpersonal value are used for this task. The results of three studies (N = 1,694), each conducted using U.S. samples, are consistent with this proposition: People are less averse to engaging in infection-risky acts not only with friends relative to foes but also with honest and agreeable strangers relative to dishonest and disagreeable ones. Further, a continuous measure of how much a person values a target covaries with comfort with infection-risky acts with that target, even within relationship categories. Findings indicate that social prophylactic motivations arise not only from cues to infectiousness but also from interpersonal value. Consequently, pathogen transmission within social networks might be exacerbated by relaxed contamination aversions with highly valued social partners.

The effect of differential disgust conditioning and subsequent extinction versus counterconditioning procedures on women's sexual responses to erotic stimuli

Recent theoretical accounts point to disgust as an important factor in the development and persistence of sexual dysfunctions. This study tested if (i) contingent disgust experiences can render initially sexually arousing stimuli disgusting, and (ii) such acquired disgust responses could be best neutralized via a CS-only extinction or a counterconditioning procedure. Participants (N = 74) were exposed to a differential conditioning procedure that was followed by either a CS-only extinction or a counterconditioning procedure. Erotic films served as the CS+/CS-. A disgusting film served as the US. During the extinction procedure, the CS+ was no longer followed by the disgusting US. During counterconditioning the CS+ was paired with positive stimuli. After conditioning, the CS + elicited lower genital arousal and was rated as significantly more disgusting, less pleasant, and less sexually arousing than the CS-. These diminished genital and subjective sexual arousal responses to the CS+ were successfully restored after both the extinction and the counterconditioning procedure, whereas conditioned feelings of disgust and behavioral avoidance persisted. There was no evidence for differential effectiveness of either procedure. Thus, sexual responses can be attenuated by learned sex-disgust associations and restored by extinction and counterconditioning procedures, but conditioned feelings of disgust seem more resistant.

The Reciprocal Relationship Between Sexual Arousal and Disgust as Evidenced in Automatic Approach-Avoidance Behavior

Sexual encounters imply exposure to stimuli that in other contexts typically elicit disgust-induced avoidance. To explain why people nevertheless tend to show sexual approach, it has been proposed that heightened sexual arousal may temporarily inhibit disgust. In line with this, studies have found that sexually aroused individuals showed heightened willingness to approach disgusting stimuli. Because automatic processes are critically involved in sexual behaviors, we examined whether the impact of sexual arousal extends to automatic responses to disgust-elicitors. To test the proposed reciprocal relationship between sex and disgust, we also investigated whether disgust reduces automatic sexual approach. In Study 1, 116 female participants (M = age 19.53) were assigned to a sexual arousal or control condition and performed a speeded approach-avoidance task to assess automatic responses to disgusting stimuli. In Study 2, 174 female participants (M = age 22.14) were assigned to a disgust, sexual arousal, or control condition and performed an approach-avoidance task involving both sex and disgust-relevant stimuli. Sexual arousal did not affect automatic responses to disgusting stimuli, and disgust did not influence automatic responses towards sexual stimuli. The reciprocal relationship between sexual arousal and disgust that was previously found for controllable responses did not extend to automatic responses.

The role of disgust propensity and sensitivity on sexual excitations and inhibition in obsessive-compulsive disorder

Sexuality is understudied in Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD). According to the Dual Control Model, low sexual excitation (SE) and high sexual inhibition (SI) are indicative of a higher probability of experiencing a sexual dysfunction. The present study investigated SE and SI in OCD patients compared with controls. It was hypothesized that OCD patients report lower SE and higher SI than controls. Given their potential role as inhibitors of sexual response, it was hypothesized that in the OCD group higher disgust propensity/sensitivity, contamination/washing symptoms, unacceptable thoughts, and obsessive beliefs predicted lower SE, higher SI due to Threat of Performance Failure, and higher SI due to Threat of Performance Consequences. Seventy-two OCD patients and 72 controls matched on gender/age completed the Disgust Propensity and Sensitivity Scale-Revised, Obsessive Beliefs Questionnaire-46, Obsessive Compulsive Inventory- Revised, and Sexual Inhibition/Sexual Excitation Scales. OCD patients had higher SE, SI due to Threat of Performance Failure, and SI due to Threat of Performance Consequences than controls. In the OCD group, higher disgust sensitivity, SI due to Threat of Performance Consequences, and perfectionism predicted higher SI due to Threat of Performance Failure. Higher SI due to Threat of Performance Failure and contamination/washing symptoms predicted higher SI due to Threat of Performance Consequences. These findings highlight the presence of sexual difficulties in OCD patients, particularly a higher SE and SI. The latter is especially relevant in those patients with higher disgust sensitivity, contamination/washing symptoms and perfectionism. Psychotherapists should assess and target sexuality during clinicalpractice with OCD patients.

Interactions between inflammation and female sexual desire and arousal function

PURPOSE OF REVIEW

To describe the current state of research on interactions between inflammation and female sexual function.

RECENT FINDINGS

Inflammation may interfere with female sexual desire and arousal via direct (neural) and indirect (endocrine, vascular, social/behavioral) pathways. There are significant sex differences in the effect of inflammation on sexual function, arising from different evolutionary selection pressures on regulation of reproduction. A variety of inflammation-related conditions are associated with risk of female sexual dysfunction, including cardiovascular disease, metabolic syndrome, and chronic pain.

SUMMARY

Clinical implications include the need for routine assessment for sexual dysfunction in patients with inflammation-related conditions, the potential for anti-inflammatory diets to improve sexual desire and arousal function, and consideration of chronic inflammation as moderator of sexual effects of hormonal treatments. Although the evidence points to a role for inflammation in the development and maintenance of female sexual dysfunction, the precise nature of these associations remains unclear.

Visual Attention to Sexual Stimuli in Mostly Heterosexuals

Individuals who report mostly heterosexual orientations (i.e., mostly sexually attracted to the opposite sex, but occasionally attracted to the same sex) outnumber all other non-heterosexual individuals combined. The present study examined whether mostly heterosexual men and women view same- and other-sex sexual stimuli differently than exclusively heterosexual men and women. A novel eye-tracking paradigm was used with 162 mostly and exclusively heterosexual men and women. Compared to exclusively heterosexual men, mostly heterosexual men demonstrated greater attention to sexually explicit features (i.e., genital regions and genital contact regions) of solo male and male-male erotic stimuli, while demonstrating equivalent attention to sexually explicit features of solo female and female-female erotic stimuli. Mediation analyses suggested that differences between mostly and exclusively heterosexual profiles in men could be explained by mostly heterosexual men's increased sexual attraction to solo male erotica, and their increased sexual attraction and reduced disgust to the male-male erotica. No comparable differences in attention were observed between mostly and exclusively heterosexual women-although mostly heterosexual women did demonstrate greater fixation on visual erotica overall-a pattern of response that was found to be mediated by reduced disgust.

The structure and function of pathogen disgust

Researchers have long noted that many of the multiple elicitors of disgust have some relation to infectious disease. There is an emerging consensus that disgust evolved in Animalia to direct the behaviours that reduce risk of infection, so-called 'parasite avoidance theory'. If this is correct, then the disgust motive should be structured in a manner that reflects the ways in which infectious disease can be avoided. In this study, we generated a set of items based on the epidemiology of disease transmission. These were then rated for their capacity to elicit disgust by a large, predominantly North American/UK sample and subjected to factor analysis to identify latent variables. While a number of plausible factor solutions emerged, Velicer's MAP (minimum average partial) test suggested six domains: atypical appearance, lesions, sex, hygiene, food and animals. This structure did not exactly mirror the transmission routes of infections, as we initially predicted, but it may rather reflect distinct kinds of behavioural tasks involved in avoiding disease. This finding makes sense from the perspective of a cognitive system that evolved under selection for a behavioural response to threats from the social and biological environment. We suggest that regularly occurring types of infectious disease problems have produced regularities in the domain structure of pathogen disgust and discuss the implications of these results for understanding the structure, function and measurement of motives such as disgust in humans and other animals.This article is part of the Theo Murphy meeting issue 'Evolution of pathogen and parasite avoidance behaviours'.

Consumption, contact and copulation: how pathogens have shaped human psychological adaptations

Disgust is an emotion intimately linked to pathogen avoidance. Building on prior work, we suggest disgust is an output of programmes that evolved to address three separate adaptive problems: what to eat, what to touch and with whom to have sex. We briefly discuss the architecture of these programmes, specifying their perceptual inputs and the contextual factors that enable them to generate adaptive and flexible behaviour. We propose that our sense of disgust is the result of these programmes and occurs when information-processing circuitries assess low expected values of consumption, low expected values of contact or low expected sexual values. This conception of disgust differs from prior models in that it dissects pathogen-related selection pressures into adaptive problems related to consumption and contact rather than assuming just one pathogen disgust system, and it excludes moral disgust from the domain of disgust proper. Instead, we illustrate how low expected values of consumption and contact as well as low expected sexual values can be used by our moral psychology to provide multiple causal links between disgust and morality.This article is part of the Theo Murphy meeting issue 'Evolution of pathogen and parasite avoidance behaviours'.

The influence of olfactory disgust on (Genital) sexual arousal in men

Background

The generation or persistence of sexual arousal may be compromised when inhibitory processes such as negative emotions, outweigh sexual excitation. Disgust particularly, has been proposed as one of the emotions that may counteract sexual arousal. In support of this view, previous research has shown that disgust priming can reduce subsequent sexual arousal. As a crucial next step, this experimental study tested whether disgust (by means of odor) can also diminish sexual arousal in individuals who are already in a state of heightened sexual excitation.

Methodology

In this study, participants were all men (N = 78). To elicit sexual arousal, participants watched a pornographic video. Following 4.30 minutes from the start of the video clip, they were exposed to either a highly aversive/disgusting odor (n = 42), or an odorless diluent/solvent (n = 36), that was delivered via an olfactometer, while the pornographic video continued. In both conditions the presentation of the odor lasted 1 second and was repeated 11 times with intervals of 26 seconds. Sexual arousal was indexed by both self-reports and penile circumference.

Principal findings

The disgusting odor (released when the participants were already sexually aroused) resulted in a significant decrease of both subjective and genital sexual arousal compared to the control (odorless) condition.

Significance

The finding that the inhibitory effect of disgust was not only expressed in self-report but also expressed on the penile response further strengthens the idea that disgust might hamper behavioral actions motivated by sexual arousal (e.g., poor judgment, coercive sexual behavior). Thus, the current findings indicate that exposure to an aversive odor is sufficiently potent to reduce already present (subjective and) genital sexual arousal. This finding may also have practical relevance for disgust to be used as a tool for self-defence (e.g., Invi Bracelet).

The Role of Disgust in Male Sexual Decision-Making

Sexual arousal is known to increase risky behaviors, such as having unprotected sex. This may in part relate to the emotion of disgust, which normally serves a disease avoidant function, and is suppressed by sexual arousal. In this report we examine disgust's role in sexual decision-making. Male participants received two study packets that were to be completed at home across two different time-points. Participants were asked to complete one packet in a sexually aroused state and the other in a non-aroused state. Participants were asked to rate: (1) arousal, (2) disgust, (3) willingness for sex, and (4) disease risk toward a range of female targets, which varied in level of potential disease risk (sex-worker vs. non sex-worker) and attractiveness. A measure of trait disgust was also included along with other related scales. Sexual arousal was associated with reduced disgust and reduced judgments of disease risk for all targets—these latter two variables being correlated—and with enhanced willingness to have sex with all of the depicted persons. Willingness to have sex when aroused (in contrast to non-aroused) was predicted by disease risk judgments and trait disgust, suggesting both direct (state) and indirect (trait) effects of disgust on sexual decision-making.

Disgust Toward Sex-Relevant and Sex-Irrelevant Stimuli in Pre-, Early, and Middle Adolescence

For prepubertal youth, sexual stimuli elicit disgust and avoidance, yet in adolescence this avoidance shifts to sexual approach. One explanation could be that disgust declines in adolescence. This project examined whether disgust is indeed lower in adolescence compared to preadolescence, and whether this difference across age groups would be restricted to sex-relevant disgust elicitors. We also examined whether the strength of disgust would depend on familiarity between participant and source. To examine disgust responses in youths, two cross-sectional studies (N = 248, ages six to 17 years) were conducted using scenario-based measurements. Disgust was overall higher in early adolescence than in preadolescence and relatively weak when the source of disgust was a familiar person. Specifically, when parents were the source, sex-relevant disgust was higher in the groups of early and middle adolescents than in the group of preadolescents. Sex-relevant disgust elicited by a stranger or best friend, however, was lower in middle than in early adolescence. The latter is consistent with the view that repeated confrontation with disgusting stimuli might attenuate disgust, which could contribute to healthy sexual functioning. The heightened sex-relevant disgust in middle adolescents when parents were the source might reflect a functional avoidance mechanism of inappropriate sex mates.

Sex Differences in Disgust: Why Are Women More Easily Disgusted Than Men?

Women have consistently higher levels of disgust than men. This sex difference is substantial in magnitude, highly replicable, emerges with diverse assessment methods, and affects a wide array of outcomes—including job selection, mate choice, food aversions, and psychological disorders. Despite the importance of this far-reaching sex difference, sound theoretical explanations have lagged behind the empirical discoveries. In this article, we focus on the evolutionary-functional level of analysis, outlining hypotheses capable of explaining why women have higher levels of disgust than men. We present four hypotheses for sexual disgust and six for pathogen disgust, along with testable predictions. Discussion focuses on additional new hypotheses and on future research capable of adjudicating among these competing, but not mutually exclusive, hypotheses.

Affective and Autonomic Responses to Erotic Images: Evidence of Disgust-Based Mechanisms in Female Sexual Interest/Arousal Disorder

Disgust has recently been implicated in the development and maintenance of female sexual dysfunction, yet most empirical studies have been conducted with a sexually healthy sample. The current study contributes to the literature by expanding the application of a disgust model of sexual functioning to a clinically relevant sample of women with low sexual desire/arousal and accompanying sexual distress. Young women (mean age = 19.12 years) with psychometrically defined sexual dysfunction (i.e., female sexual interest/arousal disorder [FSIAD] group) and a healthy control group were compared in their affective (i.e., facial electromyography [EMG] and self-report) and autonomic (i.e., heart rate and electrodermal activity) responses to disgusting, erotic, positive, and neutral images. Significant differences were predicted in responses to erotic images only. Specifically, it was hypothesized that the FSIAD group would display affective and autonomic responses consistent with a disgust response, while responses from the control group would align with a general appetitive response. Results largely supported study hypotheses. The FSIAD group displayed significantly greater negative facial affect, reported more subjective disgust, and recorded greater heart rate deceleration than the control group in response to erotic stimuli. Greater subjective disgust response corresponded with more sexual avoidance behavior. Planned follow-up analyses explored correlates of subjective disgust responses.