Emotional Salience of Evolutionary and Modern Disgust-Relevant Threats Measured Through Electrodermal Activity

Result code in IS VaVaI

<a href="https://www.isvavai.cz/riv?ss=detail&h=RIV%2F00023752%3A_____%2F25%3A43921650" target="_blank" >RIV/00023752:_____/25:43921650 - isvavai.cz</a>

Alternative codes found

RIV/00216208:11310/25:10507366

Result on the web

<a href="https://www.mdpi.com/2673-9488/5/4/41" target="_blank" >https://www.mdpi.com/2673-9488/5/4/41</a>

DOI - Digital Object Identifier

<a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/physiologia5040041" target="_blank" >10.3390/physiologia5040041</a>

Result language

angličtina

Original language name

Emotional Salience of Evolutionary and Modern Disgust-Relevant Threats Measured Through Electrodermal Activity

Original language description

Background: The study of psychophysiological responses to disgust-evoking stimuli has long been neglected in favour of other emotional stimuli, especially those evoking fear. While the basic cascade of responses to a frightening stimulus is relatively well-understood, psychophysiological responses to disgust-related threats, such as parasites or rotten food, are scarcely studied. Methods: Here, we aimed to assess skin resistance (SR) change as a measure of electrodermal response to visual cues that signal the presence of disgust-relevant threats. To this aim, we recruited 123 participants and presented them with one of the following varieties of disgust-relevant threats: disgust-evoking animals (e.g., parasites, worms), spoiled food, threat of pandemic, or pollution and toxicity. The latter two represented modern threats to test whether also these modern stimuli can initiate immediate automatic reaction. Results: We found significant differences between the categories: Participants responded with the highest probability to disgust-evoking animals (38%) and sneezing (52%), suggesting that only ancestral cues of pathogen disgust trigger automatic physiological response. Moreover, we found significant inter-sexual differences: women exhibited more SR change responses than men, and the amplitude of these responses was overall larger. Finally, we report a weak effect of subjectively perceived disgust intensity on reactivity to threat stimuli. Conclusions: We discuss heterogeneity of disgust-relevant threats, their adequate behavioural responses, and subsequent heterogeneity of respective SR responses. We conclude that large interindividual variability might eclipse systematic differences between participants with high or low sensitivity to disgust, and that subjectively perceived intensity of disgust is only a weak predictor of electrodermal response to its elicitor.

Czech name

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Czech description

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Type

J_imp - Article in a specialist periodical, which is included in the Web of Science database

CEP classification

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OECD FORD branch

30105 - Physiology (including cytology)

Project

<a href="/en/project/GA22-13381S" target="_blank" >GA22-13381S: Human responses to ancestral and modern threats and their comparison to airborne pathogens</a><br>

Continuities

P - Projekt vyzkumu a vyvoje financovany z verejnych zdroju (s odkazem do CEP)

Publication year

2025

Confidentiality

S - Úplné a pravdivé údaje o projektu nepodléhají ochraně podle zvláštních právních předpisů

Name of the periodical

Physiologia

ISSN

2673-9488

e-ISSN

2673-9488

Volume of the periodical

5

Issue of the periodical within the volume

4

Country of publishing house

CH - SWITZERLAND

Number of pages

20

Pages from-to

"Article Number 41"

UT code for WoS article

001646461000001

EID of the result in the Scopus database

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