Domain-specific variation in disgust sensitivity across the menstrual cycle
نویسندگان
چکیده
Disgust operates in many domains of behavior. On the presumption that facets of this emotion evince adaptive design, we conducted a cross-sectional study of 307 women, investigating changes in disgust sensitivity across the menstrual cycle. Two hypotheses were tested, namely (i) sexual disgust is an adaptation that serves to reduce participation in biologically suboptimal sexual behaviors, and (ii) many facets of disgust sensitivity compensate for cyclic changes in immunological robusticity via patterned alterations in behavioral prophylaxis against pathogens. Hypothesis (i) was supported, as disgust sensitivity in the sexual domain, and only in the sexual domain, was positively correlated with presumed conception risk as assessed on the basis of self-reported position in the menstrual cycle. Hypothesis (ii) was not supported, as no facet of disgust sensitivity changed as a function of the presumed level of immunosuppression assessed on the basis of self-reported position in the menstrual cycle. Results are discussed in light of published ethnographic evidence indicating that, in disparate cultures, disgust is elicited by aberrant sexual behaviors, and sex is equated with eating. Together with published findings on an animal model of sexual conditioning, this corpus suggests that sexual disgust may be a panmammalian adaptation. D 2003 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
منابع مشابه
The quantitative genetics of disgust sensitivity.
[Correction Notice: An Erratum for this article was reported in Vol 16(1) of Emotion (see record 2015-57029-001). In the article, the name of author Joshua M. Tybur was misspelled as Joshua M. Tyber. All versions of this article have been corrected.] Response sensitivity to common disgust elicitors varies considerably among individuals. The sources of these individual differences are largely un...
متن کاملHormonal correlates of pathogen disgust: Testing the Compensatory Prophylaxis Hypothesis
Raised progesterone during the menstrual cycle is associated with suppressed physiological immune responses, reducing the probability that the immune system will compromise the development of the blastocyst. The Compensatory Prophylaxis Hypothesis proposes that this progesterone-linked immunosuppression triggers increased disgust responses to pathogen cues, compensating for the reduction in phy...
متن کاملNatural variation in female reproductive hormones does not affect contrast sensitivity
Evidence suggests that females experience adaptive shifts in facial preferences across the menstrual cycle. However, recent discussions and meta-analyses suggest that these findings are equivocal. A previously unexplored question is the extent to which shifts in female preferences are modulated by hormone-dependent changes occurring in low-level vision, such as visual sensitivity. This mechanis...
متن کاملWorking memory for emotional facial expressions: role of the estrogen in young women.
Physiological hormonal fluctuations during the menstrual cycle, postpartum, and menopause have been implicated in the modulation of mood, cognition, and affective disorders. Taking into account that women's performance in memory tasks can also fluctuate with circulating hormones levels across the menstrual cycle, the cognitive performance in a working memory task for emotional facial expression...
متن کامل