Induced disgust affects implicit and explicit responses toward gay men and lesbians

Abstract

In the current study, disgust was induced using a carefully controlled odor manipulation to observe its effect on participants' implicit and explicit responses to homosexuals. Participants were presented with a vial containing an odor that was described as “body odor” (n = 47) that induced a high level of disgust, or “parmesan cheese” (n = 43) that induced a moderate level of disgust, or an odor‐free vial (n = 53). Subsequently, participants viewed images of homosexual and heterosexual couples, and their viewing times and ratings of the images' pleasantness were recorded. Additionally, they completed a “feelings thermometer” task, the Attitudes Toward Lesbians and Gay Men scale that assessed feelings toward homosexuals, and the Three‐Domain Disgust Scale to measure sensitivity along three dimensions of disgust (pathogen, moral, and sexual). Results indicated that those in the body odor condition viewed images of gay (but not lesbian) couples for less time relative to images of heterosexual couples compared with participants in the other two conditions. With respect to explicit ratings, participants in the body odor condition reported colder feelings for gay relative to heterosexual men on the feelings thermometer compared with those in the no‐odor control condition. For pleasantness ratings, the odor manipulation served as a moderator, such that for those in the body odor condition only, higher sensitivity to sexual disgust predicted lower ratings for images of lesbian couples relative to straight couples. Thus, although induction of disgust biases implicit and explicit responses to gay couples, the degree to which this occurs for explicit ratings of lesbian couples depends on levels of sexual disgust. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

The Role of Disgust in Homosexuality Judgments

“…The effect of the disgust induction on implicit moral judgment is in accordance with the majority of existing literature, which indicates that induced disgust tends to lead to harsher moral judgment in the purity domain [5,8], and in particular implicit moral judgment [21,23,24]. A potential explanation for this finding is that disgust-primed participants may erroneously project the sensation of disgust they are experiencing to the actions described in the scenarios, and come to judge the scenarios as more immoral, in contrast to the participants in the control condition.…”

“…Similarly, participants who read the gay couple-kissing scenario also rendered a higher intentionality rating, compared to those who read the straight couplekissing scenario. The present findings suggest that a gay couple French kissing in public was thought to be "more wrong" compared to a straight couple French kissing in public [21,23]. Thus, participants' disapproval of public homosexual behavior was reflected by blaming the director's intentions.…”

“…Using odor to induce disgust, Cunningham et al [21] found that participants in the disgust condition reported less warmth towards homosexuals both explicitly and implicitly, while Inbar et al [22] found such an effect only with regard to explicit judgments. Both studies found that this effect was limited to gay men, and did not extend to lesbians, African Americans or the elderly.…”

Heteronormativity, Disgust Sensitivity, and Hostile Attitudes toward Gay Men: Potential Mechanisms to Maintain Social Hierarchies

“…More recently, research has begun to examine the outcomes of such emotional arousal. Several studies have presented results suggesting that people with increased disgust sensitivity report more antigay attitudes (Crawford et al 2014;Inbar et al 2009;Olatunji 2008;Terrizzi et al 2010) and that the manipulation of disgust can amplify negative attitudes toward sexual minorities (Cunningham et al 2013;Inbar et al 2012). Meta-analytic findings have highlighted the robust association between disgust and antigay attitudes, with results indicating a moderate-to-large effect across studies .…”

Make Love and Lose Your Religion and Virtue: Recalling Sexual Experiences Undermines Spiritual Intentions and Moral Behavior

“…Restricted versus unrestricted sexuality is related to feelings of guilt (Woo et al 2012) and high disgust sensitivity (de Jong, van Overveld, and Borg 2013). Unconventional (e.g., homosexuality, sodomy) or abnormal (e.g., incest) sexual behaviors are often perceived as unnatural and provoke, particularly among conservatives, reactions of moral disgust (Cunningham, Forestell, and Dickter 2013;Terrizzi, Shook, and Ventis 2010). Positive and successful sexual experiences thus imply the minimization of thoughts and feelings of disgust (de Jong, van Overveld, and Borg 2013;Lee, Ambler, and Sagarin 2014).…”