The Journal of Sex Research

2020

DOI: 10.1080/00224499.2020.1863316

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

Aleksandra Pawłowska

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Peter J. de Jong

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Introduction3

Applications: Disgust Based Interventions and Gaps For Futur...2

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Cited by 8 publications

(9 citation statements)

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“…This study’s aim was to test whether the threat caused by the Covid-19 pandemic leads to increased perceived disgust as a major variable linked to the BIS. We employed a mixed research strategy combining an experimental design (a priming vignette, which is a common tool used in research on sexual and moral disgust 17 – 19 ) and a naturally occurring event (the Covid-19 pandemic). The perception of threat was experimentally induced by a priming story (between-subject design).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Pandemic elevates sensitivity to moral disgust but not pathogen disgust

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et al. 2023

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The behavioral immune system, with disgust as its motivational part, serves as the first line of defense in organisms’ protection against pathogens. Laboratory studies indicate that disgust sensitivity adaptively adjusts to simulated environmental threat, but whether disgust levels similarly change in response to real-life threats, such as a pandemic, remains largely unknown. In a preregistered within-subject study, we tested whether the threat posed by the Covid-19 pandemic would lead to increased perceived disgust. The perception of threat was induced by testing during two phases of the Covid-19 pandemic (periods of high vs. low pathogen threat). We found heightened levels of moral disgust during a “wave” of the pandemic, but the effect was not observed in the domain of pathogen or sexual disgust. Moreover, the age of respondents and levels of trait anxiety were positively associated with pathogen and moral disgust, suggesting that variation in disgust sensitivity may be based chiefly on stable characteristics.

“…This study’s aim was to test whether the threat caused by the Covid-19 pandemic leads to increased perceived disgust as a major variable linked to the BIS. We employed a mixed research strategy combining an experimental design (a priming vignette, which is a common tool used in research on sexual and moral disgust 17 – 19 ) and a naturally occurring event (the Covid-19 pandemic). The perception of threat was experimentally induced by a priming story (between-subject design).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Pandemic elevates sensitivity to moral disgust but not pathogen disgust

¹

,

²

,

³

et al. 2023

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The behavioral immune system, with disgust as its motivational part, serves as the first line of defense in organisms’ protection against pathogens. Laboratory studies indicate that disgust sensitivity adaptively adjusts to simulated environmental threat, but whether disgust levels similarly change in response to real-life threats, such as a pandemic, remains largely unknown. In a preregistered within-subject study, we tested whether the threat posed by the Covid-19 pandemic would lead to increased perceived disgust. The perception of threat was induced by testing during two phases of the Covid-19 pandemic (periods of high vs. low pathogen threat). We found heightened levels of moral disgust during a “wave” of the pandemic, but the effect was not observed in the domain of pathogen or sexual disgust. Moreover, the age of respondents and levels of trait anxiety were positively associated with pathogen and moral disgust, suggesting that variation in disgust sensitivity may be based chiefly on stable characteristics.

“…In a follow up study, we successfully replicated the finding that up-regulation of sexual arousal could be successfully applied to increase arousal when exposed to an erotic video (Pawlowska et al 2021; study 1). However, again, this strategy appeared ineffective in reducing feelings of disgust.…”

Section: Applications: Disgust Based Interventions and Gaps For Futur...mentioning

confidence: 57%

“…We therefore also tested if disgust down-regulation strategies might perhaps be more effective than sexual arousal up-regulating strategies to reduce feelings of disgust. Findings indicated that indeed an emotion regulation strategy designed to reduce disgust was effective in reducing feelings of disgust when exposed to an erotic video (Pawlowska et al 2021; study 2). However, this study only included asymptomatic participants and thus it remains to be tested whether such an intervention would also be effective in reducing disgust in individuals with sexual problems related to sexual disgust.…”

Section: Applications: Disgust Based Interventions and Gaps For Futur...mentioning

confidence: 90%

The Realm of Disgust in Sexual Behaviour

Borg¹,

2021

The Handbook of Disgust Research

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Sex and sexual behaviour are a core part of life; besides reproduction, sex offers opportunities for pleasure and can be beneficial for bonding, intimacy and for many facets of one's life. However, along with these desirable features, sex and sexual behaviour can also have the clear down side of providing ample opportunities for contracting infectious diseases. To elaborate on this high risk of contagion, let us consider one of the simplest sexual activities, French kissing. This activity entails the sharing of saliva, with the capacity of more than 80 million bacteria in a single 10-s kiss transferred to the other person (Kort et al. 2014). Other sexual activities, such as intercourse, and/or coming into physical contact with the ejaculate and vaginal fluids, may similarly pose a high risk of contamination (Curtis 2013;Kort et al. 2014). Thus, the inherent contagious nature of sexual behaviours and sexual (by)products may help explain why sexual stimuli, may also be generally considered as potent disgust elicitors (Rozin et al. 1995).Disgust is thought to serve the evolutionary function of self-protection (Rozin et al. 2008) and disease avoidance (Oaten et al. 2009; see also Bradshaw and Gassen, Chap. 3, this volume). By the expressed disgust-driven inhibitory tendencies, operating via defensive reflexes, or by actively motivating avoidance (or withdrawal) of disgust-evoking stimuli, disgust is thought to protect us from contamination by nonvisible pathogens (Curtis et al. 2011;Oaten et al. 2009). In line with the protective function of disgust, it has been shown that disgust propensity varies as a function of vulnerability to disease. For instance, Fessler et al. (2005) found a temporary

“…The information processing model of sexual arousal suggests that the appraisal of sexual stimuli affects the following sexual response [ 17 ]. People with negative attitudes toward sexuality experience negative emotions such as fear, shame, and disgust with the occurrence of sexual stimuli, and research has shown that individuals with sexual dysfunctions report higher disgust toward sexual stimuli [ 18 ] and pornography use is also related to negative feelings toward erotic stimuli [ 19 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Previous results regarding the bidirectional relationship between sexual arousal and disgust are conflicting [ 16 , 17 ]. One possibility is that individual differences moderate this bidirectional relationship.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Bidirectional relationship between sexual arousal and (sex-related) disgust

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Sexual stimuli provoke both sexual arousal and disgust, and the coaction between these emotions determines sexually behavioral outcomes. The current research includes two experiments to explore the bidirectional relationship between sexual arousal toward erotic stimuli and disgust induced by sexual body fluids. Study 1 presented 234 participants (117 women) with sexual body (vs. neutral) fluids followed by erotic stimuli, and Study 2 presented 235 participants (117 women) with erotic (vs. neutral) videos followed by sexual body fluids (and a non-sex-related stimulus). Study 1 showed that exposure to sexual body fluids reduced sexual arousal and the likelihood of sexual engagement toward erotic stimuli in participants with high sexual disgust sensitivity but increased sexual arousal and the likelihood of sexual engagement in participants with low sexual disgust sensitivity, while Study 2 suggested that men exposed to erotic (vs. neutral) stimuli reported lower disgust, stronger sexual arousal state, and higher willingness to interact with the sexual body fluids. There was no relationship between subjective feelings of sexual arousal and disgust in these experiments, while the balance of sexual arousal and disgust toward sexual body fluids and erotic stimuli had a positive association. Also, exposure to erotic stimuli had no effect on reactions to generally disgusting stimulus, but feelings of sexual arousal toward erotic stimuli were positively associated with disgust induced by generally disgusting fluid. These findings suggest that Behavior Immune System regulates disgust to establish a balance between benefit and cost related to sex as well as provide insight into the process underlying sexual dysfunctions.

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