How Easily Are You Disgusted?
Spoiled food, open wounds and the glass someone else drank from
Disgust is the emotion that kept our ancestors away from rotten meat and sick bodies, and people differ enormously in how easily it fires. The research behind the Disgust Scale found it is not one reaction but three: revulsion at things that could make you ill, unease at reminders that the body is fragile, and reluctance to touch what strangers have touched.
Before you start There are no right answers. Pick what is usually true for you, not what sounds best.
Picture each situation honestly. There is no virtue in pretending to be unbothered, and no shame in admitting you would leave the room.
What it measures
The three factors of the revised Disgust Scale: core disgust (spoiled food, bodily fluids, vermin), animal-reminder disgust (blood, injury, dead bodies - reminders that we are fragile animals) and contamination disgust (contact with things other people have touched or used). It is not the same as the sensitivity (HSP) test, which is about being overwhelmed by stimulation in general, not about revulsion.
Based on: Disgust Scale-Revised (Haidt, McCauley & Rozin, 1994; Olatunji et al., 2007)
Possible results
Core disgust
Revulsion at rot, bodily fluids and vermin - the things that can make you ill.
Animal reminder
Unease at blood, injury and death - reminders that the body is a fragile animal body.
Contamination
Reluctance to touch, share or use what other people have touched.
Common questions
Why are some people more easily disgusted than others?
Partly temperament: disgust sensitivity tends to go with higher anxiety and neuroticism in general. Partly upbringing and culture, which set what counts as food, clean or dirty. And partly sex - across studies and countries, women score higher on all three factors, for reasons that are still argued over between evolutionary and social explanations.
Can you become less easily disgusted?
Yes, within limits. Repeated, voluntary exposure softens the reaction - which is why medical students stop flinching at dissection and new parents stop noticing nappies. It often takes more repetitions than people expect, and it is context-specific: getting used to blood will not make you comfortable with a shared toothbrush.
Is disgust sensitivity the same as being fussy about food?
They overlap but are not the same. Core disgust does predict reluctance to try unfamiliar or 'risky' foods, especially meat. But a picky eater may simply dislike textures or tastes, with no sense of revulsion, while someone high in animal-reminder disgust can eat anything and still faint at a blood test.
Sources
- Haidt, J., McCauley, C., & Rozin, P. (1994). Individual differences in sensitivity to disgust: A scale sampling seven domains of disgust elicitors. Personality and Individual Differences. doi:10.1016/0191-8869(94)90212-7
- Olatunji, B. O., Williams, N. L., Tolin, D. F., Abramowitz, J. S., Sawchuk, C. N., Lohr, J. M., & Elwood, L. S. (2007). The Disgust Scale: Item analysis, factor structure, and suggestions for refinement. Psychological Assessment. doi:10.1037/1040-3590.19.3.281
- Olatunji, B. O., Haidt, J., McKay, D., & David, B. (2008). Core, animal reminder, and contamination disgust: Three kinds of disgust with distinct personality, behavioral, physiological, and clinical correlates. Journal of Research in Personality. doi:10.1016/j.jrp.2008.03.009
- Olatunji, B. O., Moretz, M. W., McKay, D., Bjorklund, F., de Jong, P. J., Haidt, J., Hursti, T. J., Imada, S., Koller, S., Mancini, F., Page, A. C., & Schienle, A. (2009). Confirming the three-factor structure of the Disgust Scale-Revised in eight countries. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology. doi:10.1177/0022022108328918
An honest note The items are Quinthea's own wording, adapted from the revised Disgust Scale, so your scores cannot be compared with its published norms. The three-factor structure held up in eight countries, but what counts as disgusting still depends a lot on culture and upbringing, and women score higher on average. This is a normal-range trait, not a diagnosis. If fears about germs or dirt take up hours of your day, talk to a health professional.