Relationship Between Illness and Digust Sensitivity Report

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Updated: Mar 6th, 2024

Abstract

Disgust sensitivity shows impact on the behavior of human beings. However there is a gap in the knowledge base to prove the relation between disgust sensitivity, illness and health in human beings, which the current study considered to prove as hypothesis. For this, the study adopted the quantitative method of research by using survey questionnaire as instrument with a sample size of 126 members of heterogeneous group. The data is subjected to correlation analysis to observe the hypothesis. The study found out that females expressed more disgust sensitivity than males. And the correlation analysis shows that the correlation between these three disgust sensitivity, general health, and contagious illness is significant. Hence the study concludes that contagious illness and general health has relation on disgust sensitivity.

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Introduction

Anger, fear and disgust are different kinds of human responses to coercion (Daniel M.T. Fessler).Disgusting is a basic emotion of human behavior. Disgust sensitivity plays a main role in the attitudes and behaviour of human beings. The sensitivity to disgust appears differently in different human behaviors. Disgust represents complicated emotion across a variety of behavioral domains of humans. The psychological behaviors and pre conceived notions influence the disgust sensitivity. It is assumed that Disgust sensitivity is being influenced by factors such as fear of illness and health. Hence the current study tries to observe the relation between contagious health, general health and disgust sensitivity.

Background & Literature

Disgust sensitivity is highly related to food, relations, environmental factors, death and infection. Disgust sensitivity is the basic emotion characterized by revulsion and rejection. Disgust sensitivity develops the adaptive behaviors towards selection of food and environment and disease avoidance in humans, (Carlos David Navarrete & Daniel M.T. Fessler). Disgust makes humans step back, push away, or draw a protective line between the self and the menace. Protection actions might involve like washing, looking away, avoiding or simply changing the topic of a conversation.

Some of the researches concluded that disgust sensitivity is developed to protect the body from oral incorporation of pathogen and toxin-bearing substances. People show a disgust reaction and behavioral rejection toward foods that are potentially contaminated by parasites, Rozin, Millman, & Nemeroff, (1986) as cited in Mark Schaller and Lesley A. Duncan, 2007. Disgust sensitivity is activated by the visual perception of skin lesions, runny noses, and other obvious symptoms of bloodsucking infection, Curtis, Aunger, Rabie, Curtis & Biran, as cited in Mark Schaller et al., Disgust sensitivity motivates the behavioral avoidance in human beings as evidenced by the following works, Daniel M.T. Fessler, Alexander P. Arguello, Jeannette M. Mekdara and Ramon Macias researched on the Disgust sensitivity and meat consumption. Navarrete, C.D. and Fessler, D.M.T researched on Disease avoidance and ethnocentrism. Fessler, D.M.T., Pillsworth, E.G., and Flamson, T.J. researched on Angry men and disgusted women.

Method

Quantitative Methodology

To identify the real relation between the disgust sensitivity and the illness in human beings, the study adopts a quantitative research methodology to find out the hypothesis. The primary data collected from the method will give more accurate results to interpret the hypothesis, (Rob O’Neill).

Study Design:The study uses a survey method to carry on the quantitative methodology. The survey instrument is designed according to the Disgust Sensitivity Scale (Haidt et al., 1994) with close ended questions.

Materials, Instruments and Measure

The main instrumentation of research was survey, whose answers were referred from the measurements of scales given below:

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  1. Illness Experience Scale: This scale was the first inventory in the packet administered. The scale was designed to use as an assessment tool in determining illness (Berry & Jones, 1995). The items of illness experience scale were scored on a 5 point Likert-type scale for further measurement. Participants were asked to mark the degree to which they agreed or disagreed with each statement.
  2. Disgust sensitivity Scale:This was the second scale in the packet administered for the participants to complete. The items of the disgust sensitivity scale will be measured against the 5 point likert scale.

Participants

The current study decided to conduct the research on the population with n= 126 sample population pulled from surrounding people including male and female. The study adopts a simple random sampling to make a total sample size of 126, by considering the respondents who are willing to participate in the study.

Sample design: The study has picked the above sample size from surrounding population with prior intimation and concern about the study and distributed the survey questionnaires through mail.

Data Collection Procedure

Participants was received a packet containing a consent form (see Appendix A), demographic questionnaire, and the two inventories described above. The participants were instructed to fill out the packets separately and mail the packets directly to the researcher.

Analysis of the results

The response from the participants was coded on a spreadsheet using statistical software as primary data for further analysis. The mean score and the related standard deviation for the illness factor and disgust sensitivity were calculated. Then the results was subjected to the Pearson r test to determine whether or not there is a measurable statistical difference indicating a relation between illness and disgust sensitivity in both female and male persons. The results conclude a statistically significance or insignificance to indicate a strong or weak correlation, thus supporting or failing to support the hypotheses of the study.

Ethics: The informed consent to the participants was followed to eliminate the ethical risk of the research

Interpretation of results

The results shows that 79% of the population has a concern for contagious illness and hence develops a disgust sensitivity towards, cold, vomiting, animals like, rat and cockroaches. The study expresses that 82% of the population are concerned with general health preservation and hence develops disgust sensitivity to drink from the used glass and eat from used utensils and continuing friendship with unhygienic people and when heard about events regarding unnatural sexual relationships etc.

The results of the correlation analysis can be interpreted as below. All the participants were selected basing on the age between the heterogeneous groups. The lower limit of the males is 18 and upper limit for males is 22. The lower age limit of females is 17 and upper limit is 44. The total mean for two heterogeneous groups is 21.1429.

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The results were also interpreted in terms of mean and standard deviation for the disgust sensitivity by sex. A mean population of 0.4531 males expressed disgust sensitivity, in the study which is lower than a mean population of 0.6140 females. The Standard deviations are 0.14096 and 0.16778 for males and females respectively.

The results were submitted for correlation analysis and output shows that there is significant correlation between the factors in study. As p value is 0.01 i.e. P<0.05, the hypothesis holds true. And the significance of correlation means that the disgust sensitivity has relation with contagious illness and general health.

Discussion

The results from the study indicate a difference between the sexes in exhibiting the disgust sensitivity. The disgust sensitivity is high in females than males. Exploring the results, the study found that many of the male population won’t think that homosexual is immoral where as females strongly disgusting this and feels it immoral. Males do not bother and do not feel disgust about cockroaches in houses where as most of the females feel emotionally fear or show disgust sensitivity by seeing cockroach in houses. Vomiting also invokes disgust sensitivity to females. And regarding certain actions like eating messy food with his fingers and thinking of eating of monkey meat even after feeling hungry made both sexes exhibit disgust sensitivity. The study showed that disgusting sensitivity level is high in females than males in the situations like to walk in the way of burial ground, to see the preserved human hand in jar in science classes, seeing rat running across their way while sitting in the park and to touch the dead body. The females have expressed disgust than males to sleep in the nice hotel if they know that someone died in that room with heart attack the night before. But both male and female have expressed same disgust sensitivity to go to restaurant if they found cook has a cold as they feel that they also get sickness. This finding correlates with the expression of Curtis et al., who says that disgust sensitivity is aroused by visual perceptions of illness.

And findings also shows that majority of the respondents avoid certain activities even though they are their favorite habits, if they perceive their health will be in risk in doing such action. This suggests that disgust sensitivity motivates the behavioral avoidance in humans as proposed by Daniel M.T. Fessler et.al., and also selection of food items due to disgust sensitivity as told by Carlos David et al., Such instances from responses include avoiding drinking of their favorite soup if the drink is stirred by a used but thoroughly washed flyswatter some one though they are hungry. And it is disgusting to both the genders to see when some one has eating ice cream with ketchup and also to eat the ice cream with ketchup, to inflate a new unlubricated condom using their moth even as a part of sex education in class, knowing about a friend or person who changes underwear only once a week, to use a unflushed public toilets and walking through a tunnel under a railway track when it is smelling urine. The results indicate that the unnatural events like hearing news about adult women who is having a sexual relationship with her father and 30 years man seeking the sexual relation ship with 80 year old lady made both the genders feel highly disgusted.

The male and female population expressed slight disgusting when asked to drink the bad smell and spoiled milk and to touch the ashes of burned person accidentally and to see the person with intestines exposed after an accident.

The results of study showed that disgust sensitivity was varying by age and sex in both in female as well as male. There was a correlation between disgust sensitivity, illness and general health of people in survey.

References

Carlos David Navarrete & Daniel M.T. Fessler, . 2007.

Daniel M.T. Fessler & C. David Navarrete. , 2007.

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Fessler, D.M.T. and Navarrete, C.D. (2005) . Evolutionary Psychology.

Mark Schaller & Lesley A. Duncan. The Behavioral Immune System: Its Evolution and Social Psychological Implications. 2007. Web.

Rob O’Neill. The advantages and disadvantages of qualitative and quantitative research. Web.

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IvyPanda. 2024. "Relationship Between Illness and Digust Sensitivity." March 6, 2024. https://ivypanda.com/essays/relationship-between-illness-and-digust-sensitivity/.

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