Attentional Processing of Disgust and Fear and Its Relationship With Contamination-Based Obsessive–Compulsive Symptoms: Stronger Response Urgency to Disgusting Stimuli in Disgust-Prone Individuals

Abstract

Disgust has recently been characterized as a low-urgency emotion, particularly compared to fear. The aim of the present study is to clarify whether behavioral inhibition during disgust engagement is characteristic of a low-urgency emotion and thus indicates self-imposed attentional avoidance in comparison to fear. Therefore, 54 healthy participants performed an emotional go/no-go task with disgust- and fear-relevant as well as neutral pictures. Furthermore, heart rate activity and facial muscle activity on the fear-specific m. corrugator supercilli and the disgust-specific m. levator labii were assessed. The results partially support the temporal urgency hypothesis of disgust. The emotion conditions significantly differed in emotional engagement and in the facial muscle activity of the m. levator labii as expected. However, contrary to our expectations, no differences between the emotion conditions regarding behavioral inhibition as well as heart rate change could be found. Furthermore, individuals with a higher-trait disgust proneness showed faster reactions and higher activity of the m. levator labii in response to disgust stimuli. The results show that different trait levels influence attentional engagement and physiological parameters but have only a small effect on behavioral inhibition.

Affecting OCD

“…Patients with symptoms of the contamination/washing dimension have a higher sensitivity to react with disgust to OCD-related stimuli (chapter 2). This is in line with previous research, which found that disgust was particularly related to the contamination/washing dimension (Brady et al, 2021;Fink-Lamotte et al, 2021;Olatunji et al, 2019;Athey et al, 2015). We also found that OCD patients experiencing aggressive obsessions/checking symptoms and contamination/washing symptoms reported higher levels of anxiety in general (chapter 4).…”

“…Another affective state during the distress response are feelings of disgust. Although the tendency to react with disgust is increased in OCD patients in general (Berle et al, 2012;Olatunji et al, 2011), a distinct association with contamination/washing symptoms has been suggested (Fink-Lamotte et al, 2021;Olatunji et al, 2019;Athey et al, 2015;Brady et al, 2010).…”

“…Previous research also reported an association between anxiety and the aggressive obsessions/checking dimension . Although the contamination/washing symptom dimension occasionally is referred to as contamination fear (Fink-Lamotte et al, 2021;Olatunji et al, 2004), anxiety has not previously reported to be associated with this symptom dimension ). NJRE's were observed in OCD patients with checking compulsions (Belloch et al, 2016;van Dis et van Hout, 2016) and symptoms of the symmetry/order dimension (Belloch et al, 2016;Coles et Ravid, 2016).…”

The role of self-reported fear and disgust in the activation of behavioral harm avoidance related to medical settings

“…To minimize the risk of exposure to pathogens and the chance of contamination, it is adaptive to sensitize disgust reactions toward the mere potential of infection and trigger avoidance in more general situations, rather than only if detecting actual pathogens ( 26 ). More recent findings support this notion showing, that disgust elicits more cognitive inhibition (i.e., attentional avoidance), whereas fear is associated with more cognitive focus on the triggering stimuli [see ( 27 )], but both lead to similar reactions on the behavioral level [e.g., behavioral inhibition; see ( 25 )]. Nonetheless, disgust-related responses are more specific and context-dependent, than the fear-related components of avoidant behavior ( 28 ).…”

“…Disgust appears to be involved in this system since individuals with higher levels of anxiety show increased disgust sensitivity and avoidant behaviors ( 23 , 24 ). Moreover, disgust is suggested to be associated not only with contamination-related or other specific avoidance but also with more general forms of behavioral inhibition, similar to fear ( 24 , 25 ). To minimize the risk of exposure to pathogens and the chance of contamination, it is adaptive to sensitize disgust reactions toward the mere potential of infection and trigger avoidance in more general situations, rather than only if detecting actual pathogens ( 26 ).…”