The disgustjust like all other basic emotions such as anger, joy, sadness and fear, has a profound evolutionary value in human history and has played a fundamental role in its survival.
Ekman (1992) defines theemotion of disgust as “I feel a feeling that motivates, organizes, and guides the perception of thoughts and actions”. During the evolution, in fact, the emotions developed to give new types of motivation and encourage action to meet the requests of the external environment. Also the emotion (in general, not only of disgust) also acts as a sensory filter, selecting certain solutions to achieve the set objectives.
According to the psycho -evolutionary perspective, which develops starting from the historical works of Darwin, the emotions are closely associated with the realization of universal objectives connected to the survival of the species. Just think of the role of anxious activation in the recognition of the danger and in the trigger of struggle and/or escape behaviors.
Within the psycho -evolutionary theory, moreover, emotional facial expressions are considered innate and universal: every fundamental emotion has a specific communicative and expressive configuration, common to all human beings and only partly determined by cultural differences (Ekman, 1992).
The existence of universal facial expressions supports the vision of emotions as a psychobiological phenomenon rather than as secondary reactions to a cognitive assessment of the situation, based on expectations compared to what you have to feel, its time influenced by culture (Schacter and Singer, 1962).
THE’emotion of disgustwhose etymological root refers to “bad taste”, is a basic emotion whose function is to prevent any contaminations and diseases (Rozin, Haidt and McCauley, 1993; Woody and Teachman, 2000).
Darwin himself, in 1872, defined the disgust like “something nauseating in relation primarily to the sense of taste “, is carried out at the moment he remembered. We can therefore define the disgust as an emotional defense reaction aimed at preventing the intake of potentially harmful substances through the mouth.
The disgustIn the current literature, it is considered a complex emotion of defense from dangers of various kinds and not only as an instinctive form of refusal of food. In particular, different were identified types of disgust:
- The Core Disgust (Rozin and Fallon, 1987; HAIDT, McCauley and Rozin, 1994) is the type that approaches the most to the original psycho -evolutionistic concept referring to the emotion that makes man more cautious on what he puts in his mouth, leading him to reject foods on the basis of their sensory qualities (e.g., unpleasantness) and their history, nature and origin (who touched them). The core disgus In fact, it is an oral defense from three different stimuli domains: food, animals and body products of waste (feces, urine, saliva, vomiting, etc.).
- THE'”Animal Reminder Disgust“(Rozin, Lowerry and Ebert, 1994; Rozin, Haidt and McCauley, 2000) is a defense against the contact and sight of disgusting objects. This form of disgust has been generated through the extension of the oral disgust to the other sensory methods, such as touch and sight, and is elected by objects belonging to the domains of hygiene, death and violation of the body. blood, etc.)
- The “Disgust Contamination” (Fahs, 2011) It refers mainly to disgust reactions triggered by inappropriate or anomalous sexual behaviors (on the basis of socio-cultural norms) seen or experienced firsthand. This type of disgust can also derive from the vision or contact with body fluids associated with the sexual theme.
- The interpersonal disgust (Rozin and Fallon, 1987; Haidt, McCauley and Rozin, 1994) implies the contact, direct or indirect, with unwanted people, because they are considered unpleasant and contaminating. For example, physical contacts, sight or use in common of objects (clothes, food) with sick people, foreign, with a physical impairment, considered lower or guilty of some crimes, can be unwanted.
- The socio-moral disgust (HAIDT, Rozin, McCauley and Imada, 1997; Rozin, Haidt and McCauley, 2000), is elected by moral or social violations, which involve brutal gestures, implemented by unpleasant and contaminating people because they are inhuman. The events judged morally disgusting are very heterogeneous, since they strongly affected the cultural influences of every people.
THE’emotion of disgust It seems to play a fundamental role in the phenomenology of many recognized psychopathological disorders, including some specific phobias (e.g. of insects-ragni, blood-fold-in-dejections), eating disorders, sexual desire disorders, obsessive-compulsive disorders and more recently also the post-traumatic stress disorder and depression. Within this vein of research on disgust in psychopathology, a large slice of studies explore the disgust in the genesis and maintenance of the Obsessive-compulsive contamination disorder.
THE’emotion of disgust It is in fact the basis of the fear of contamination of the obsessive-compulsive disorder (DOC) and often the DOC symptoms are structured around the idea of being able to become dirty and disgusting; of avoidance behaviors derive to prevent the feeling of disgust or any compulsive conduct aimed at relieving the uncomfortable discomfort (Olaunji and Sawchuk, 2005).
Despite existing research that connect the disgust With DOC symptoms not strictly linked to the fear of contagion, such as, for example, religious obsessions (Olaunji et al., 2004); The most investigated area is that relating to the involvement of disgust in contamination.
Contamination is defined as a “Intense and persistent feeling of having been infected, infected, or endangered by contact, direct or indirect, with a person, place, object perceived as dirty, impure, infected or harmful“(Rachman, 2004).
The classic conceptualization of fear of contamination It only includes an assessment of threat or danger of contagion and the possibility of getting sick following the contamination itself (Riggs and Foa, 2007). On the other hand, many individuals with DOC by contamination are driven by Emotions of disgust rather than from the fear of contagion (McKay, 2006).
Studies on disgust In the fear of contamination of the DOC they have often resorted to the construct of Disgust Propensitythat is, the propensity of a sudden to frequently experience the emotion of disgust (David et al., 2009).
The association between the propensity for disgust And the DOC symptoms from contamination proved to be highly significant (among other studies, Olatunji et al., 2010; back them et al., 2003). In fact, the propensity to disgust seems to be a significant predictor both of the obsessive washing symptoms and, to a lesser extent, of those of control and order and symmetry (Mancini et al., 2001; Olatunji et al., 2004).
Recently, among the Italian studies of this line of research, an investigation was conducted on clinical champion aimed at evaluating the relationship between DOC symptoms, Disgust Propensity And Trait Guilt (propensity for guilt) (Melli et al., 2015).
The results showed that the construct of the propensity for disgust He was a significant predictor not only of the DOC symptoms from contamination but also of those related to order/symmetry. On the contrary, the predisposition to the fault predictive the aspects of the doc related to the fear of being able to cause damage to themselves or others.
Concluding, it is indisputable that the disgusthistorically much less investigated than other emotions in the field of psychopathology, playing a fundamental role in etiopathogenesis and in the maintenance of some psychic disorders. Furthermore – as already mentioned – recent data also support a possible predictive role of the predisposition to disgust Compared to peculiar symptoms of obsessive-compulsive disorder. Within this line of research, future studies will have to further clarify the links between DOC and disgust also in the light of possible developments in the clinical field and treatment.
