Doctoral Dissertation Research: Ontogenetic and environmental origins of pathogen disgust sensitivity

Trustees Of Boston University, Boston

Investigators

Abstract

It has long been proposed that the emotion of disgust helps humans avoid illness. However, levels of disgust, also called disgust sensitivity, can vary greatly among different individuals, which has implications for their behavior. In particular, research suggests that people higher in disgust sensitivity are more motivated to avoid certain objects, situations, and people. This doctoral research project investigates the broad question: why do people vary in their disgust sensitivity? One framework suggests that differences in the childhood environment may lead to differences in adult disgust sensitivity. This project is among the first to measure disgust sensitivity across a wide range of childhood ages to understand how disgust changes throughout growth and development. The researchers also examine cultural, individual, and environmental variables that may explain differences between individuals in their disgust sensitivity. These findings may be useful to health and education initiatives that focus on reducing infection risk and mitigating the progression of pandemics. Such initiatives will be aided by understanding when, why, and how children are motivated to avoid infection, and how this may vary across individuals and groups. Infectious disease has been a longstanding feature of human societies. As a result, humans have seemingly developed cultural and biological strategies to avoid infectious exposure. Pathogen disgust sensitivity is proposed as one of the core motivational triggers to initiate avoidant behavior, yet little research has investigated how it develops during childhood or what explains variation among individuals. This project examines variables such as inflammation, energy budget, control over pathogen exposure, social learning, and gender, that may account for variation in pathogen disgust sensitivity across childhood. The researchers collect these variables using self-report and physiological measures among children 6 to 18 in two communities with distinctly different infection risk and access to resources. The empirical findings from this project will be integrated to build a biocultural understanding of individual and group variation in pathogen disgust sensitivity. Educational components of the project contribute to the goal of broadening participation in science. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.