Hostname: page-component-6766d58669-rxg44 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2026-05-18T08:53:57.521Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Considerations of the proximate mechanisms and ultimate functions of disgust will improve our understanding of cleansing effects

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 February 2021

Joshua M. Tybur Open the ORCID record for Joshua M. Tybur [Opens in a new window]  and
Debra Lieberman Open the ORCID record for Debra Lieberman [Opens in a new window]
Joshua M. Tybur
Affiliation:
Department of Experimental and Applied Psychology, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, 1081 BT, Amsterdam, The Netherlands j.m.tybur@vu.nl www.joshtybur.com Institute Brain and Behavior Amsterdam, 1081 BT, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Debra Lieberman
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, University of Miami, Coral Gables, FL 33146. debra@miami.edu; people.miami.edu/profile/debra@miami.edu
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

To understand the consequences of cleansing, Lee and Schwarz favor a grounded procedures perspective over recently developed disgust theory. We believe that this position stems from three errors: (1) interpreting cleansing effects as broader than they are; (2) not detailing the proximate mechanisms underlying disgust; and (3) not detailing adaptive function versus system byproducts when developing the grounded procedures perspective.

Information

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 44 , 2021 , e25
Check for updates
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

Ackerman, J. M., Tybur, J. M., & Mortensen, C. R. (2018). Infectious disease and imperfections of self-image. Psychological Science, 29, 228–241. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797617733829.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Becker, B. J. (2005a). Failsafe n or file-drawer number. In Rothstein, H. R., Sutton, A. J. & Borenstein, M. (Eds.), Publication bias in meta-analysis: Prevention, assessment and adjustments (pp. 111–125). Chichester, England: John Wiley & Sons.Google Scholar
Billingsley, J., Lieberman, D., & Tybur, J. M. (2018). Sexual disgust trumps pathogen disgust in predicting voter behavior during the 2016 US Presidential Election. Evolutionary Psychology, 16, 1474704918764170. https://doi.org/10.1177/1474704918764170.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Carter, E. C., Schönbrodt, F. D., Gervais, W. M., & Hilgard, J. (2019). Correcting for bias in psychology: A comparison of meta-analytic methods. Advances in Methods and Practices in Psychological Science, 2(2), 115–144. https://doi.org/10.1177/2515245919847196.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cosmides, L., & Tooby, J. (1994). Beyond intuition and instinct blindness: The case for an evolutionarily rigorous cognitive science. Cognition, 50, 41–77. https://doi.org/10.1016/0010-0277(94)90020-5.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Curtis, V., De Barra, M., & Aunger, R. (2011). Disgust as an adaptive system for disease avoidance behaviour. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 366(1563), 389–401. https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2010.0117.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hart, B. L. (1990). Behavioral adaptations to pathogens and parasites: Five strategies. Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews, 14, 273–294. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0149-7634(05)80038-7.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kupfer, T. R., & Fessler, D. M. (2018). Ectoparasite defense in humans: Relationships to pathogen avoidance and clinical implications. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 373(1751), 20170207. https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2017.0207.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kupfer, T. R., & Le, A. T. (2018). Disgusting clusters: Trypophobia as an overgeneralised disease avoidance response. Cognition and Emotion, 32, 729–741. https://doi.org/10.1080/02699931.2017.1345721.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kurzban, R., Tooby, J., & Cosmides, L. (2001). Can race be erased? Coalitional computation and social categorization. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 98(26), 15387–15392. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.251541498.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lieberman, D., & Patrick, C. (2018). Objection: Disgust, morality, and the law. Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Murray, D. R., & Schaller, M. (2016). The behavioral immune system: Implications for social cognition, social interaction, and social influence. In Advances in experimental social psychology (Vol. 53, pp. 75–129). Academic Press.Google Scholar
Oaten, M., Stevenson, R. J., & Case, T. I. (2009). Disgust as a disease-avoidance mechanism. Psychological Bulletin, 135(2), 303–321. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0014823.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Oaten, M., Stevenson, R. J., & Case, T. I. (2011). Disease avoidance as a functional basis for stigmatization. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London: Series B: Biological Sciences, 366, 3433–3452. https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2011.0095.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Schnall, S., Benton, J., & Harvey, S. (2008). With a clean conscience cleanliness reduces the severity of moral judgments. Psychological Science, 19(12), 1219–1222. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-9280.2008.02227.x.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Tybur, J. M., & Lieberman, D. (2016). Human pathogen avoidance adaptations. Current Opinion in Psychology, 7, 6–11. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.copsyc.2015.06.005.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tybur, J. M., Lieberman, D., Kurzban, R., & DeScioli, P. (2013). Disgust: Evolved function and structure. Psychological Review, 120(1), 65–84. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0030778.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Tybur, J. M., Wesseldijk, L. W., & Jern, P. (2020). Genetic and environmental influences on disgust proneness, contamination sensitivity, and their covariance. Clinical Psychological Science, 2167702620951510. https://doi.org/10.1177/2167702620951510.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Xu, A. J., Zwick, R., & Schwarz, N. (2012). Washing away your (good or bad) luck: Physical cleansing affects risk-taking behavior. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 141(1), 26–30. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0023997.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed