Personality disorder symptoms, gender, and age as predictors of adolescent disgust sensitivity

Disgust reactions are believed to result from a defensive, physiological, human emotion that is present from birth with the purpose of protecting individuals from harm (e.g. poisoning). Yet, disgusteliciting stimuli eventually expand to include socio-moral stimuli like sex acts (e.g. incest) and socio-cultural stimuli like social status (e.g. Hindu caste system). Inevitably, personal traits become important variables determining what is deemed disgusting. This study expanded on previous research that investigated the association between personality traits (i.e. neuroticism and psychoticism) and disgust sensitivity by examining the possible relationship between DSM III-R Axis II personality types and disgust sensitivity in a non-clinical sample of 149 college undergraduates. The current findings revealed that the degree to which respondents could be seen as having certain personality types—;Schizoid, Obsessive Compulsive, and Dependent—;was significantly related to disgust sensitivity as were participantsʹ gender and age.