Citation

Muris P, Huijding J, Mayer B, de Vries H. J. Behav. Ther. Exp. Psychiatry 2011; 43(2): 765-769.

Affiliation

Institute of Psychology, Erasmus University Rotterdam, The Netherlands; Clinical Psychology Science, Maastricht University, P.O. Box 616, 6200 MD Maastricht, The Netherlands.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2011, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.jbtep.2011.10.002

PMID

22104658

Abstract

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Disgust is a basic emotion that is thought to play a role in the development of animal phobias. This study was conducted to test whether experimentally induced disgust also results in higher levels of fear and interpretation bias. METHODS: Children aged 9-13 years (N=94) were asked to inspect a set of specimen characteristic of a novel animal and requested to form themselves an impression of it based on those characteristics. Half of the children were given a set of disgust-eliciting products in relation to the animal, whereas the other half received a set of neutral materials. RESULTS: The main results indicated that children in the disgust specimen group exhibited an increase in fear towards the novel animal and a stronger inclination to interpret ambiguous situations involving this animal in a more negative way as compared to children in the neutral specimen group. CONCLUSION: These findings confirm that disgust has a fear-promoting effect.

Language: en