ABSTRACT
This chapter highlights how interpersonal disgust, and more specifically moral disgust, has broad implications in psychopathology. It provides a brief overview of the disease-avoidance model. Moral disgust and associated contamination has been examined experimentally, whereby exposure to information associated with violations of cultural norms provokes greater hand-washing. At the present time, assessment instruments for moral disgust are limited. Research on terror-management theory (TMT) shows that when external situations challenge one’s belief in specific worldviews, self-esteem strivings increase, as does adherence to one’s cultural, religious, and self-identified environmental milieu. One psychological condition marked by proximal mortality threats is the experience of post-traumatic reactions. As with many psychological conditions, body dysmorphic disorder (BDD) is marked by low self-esteem, which in turn is moderated by depression. Eating disorders, particularly bulimia and anorexia nervosa, represent a more general level model of self-oriented disgust, and more global psychological disturbance, compared to BDD.
