How dual-faceted disgust relates to state mental contamination in religious individuals

ABSTRACT

Many faith traditions emphasise purity expectations and rituals, highlighting the possibility that mental contamination (i.e., feelings of dirtiness and urges to neutralise dirtiness that occur without direct contact with a contaminant) may be relevant to religious individuals. The current study examined disgust sensitivity (negative appraisal of disgust) as a moderator in the relationship between disgust propensity (tendency to experience disgust) and state mental contamination among religious undergraduate students (N = 146). Following a thought-induction task, state mental contamination was assessed by feelings of dirtiness, indications of body parts feeling contaminated, and urges to neutralise the feelings of dirtiness. Disgust sensitivity moderated the relationship between disgust propensity and each of the three facets of mental contamination when controlling for covariates. The interaction indicated that disgust propensity was related to each facet of mental contamination only when coupled with greater disgust sensitivity. Clinical implications are discussed.

KEYWORDS:

• Disgust
• disgust propensity
• disgust sensitivity
• mental contamination
• moderation

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

ORCID

Rosemond T. Lorona http://orcid.org/0000-0002-3892-9769