"Sex and disgust are basic, evolutionary relevant functions that are often construed as paradoxical. In general the stimuli involved in sexual encounters are, at least out of context strongly perceived to hold high disgust qualities. Saliva, sweat, semen and body odours are among the strongest disgust elicitors. This results in the intriguing question of how people succeed in having pleasurable sex at all. One possible explanation could be that sexual engagement temporarily reduces the disgust eliciting properties of particular stimuli or that sexual engagement might weaken the hesitation to actually approach these stimuli. Methodology Participants were healthy women (n = 90) randomly allocated to one of three groups: the sexual arousal, the non-sexual positive arousal, or the neutral control group. Film clips were used to elicit the relevant mood state. Participants engaged in 16 behavioural tasks, involving sex related (e.g., lubricate the vibrator) and non-sex related (e.g., take a sip of juice with a large insect in the cup) stimuli, to measure the impact of sexual arousal on feelings of disgust and actual avoidance behaviour. Principal Findings The sexual arousal group rated the sex related stimuli as less disgusting compared to the other groups. A similar tendency was evident for the non-sex disgusting stimuli. For both the sex and non-sex related behavioural tasks the sexual arousal group showed less avoidance behaviour (i.e., they conducted the highest percentage of tasks compared to the other groups). Significance This study has investigated how sexual arousal interplays with disgust and disgust eliciting properties in women, and has demonstrated that this relationship goes beyond subjective report by affecting the actual approach to disgusting stimuli. Hence, this could explain how we still manage to engage in pleasurable sexual activity. Moreover, these findings suggest that low sexual arousal might be a key feature in the maintenance of particular sexual dysfunctions."
Feelings of Disgust and Disgust-Induced Avoidance Weaken following Induced Sexual Arousal in Women
Bonus table from the Appendix:
Appendix-S1. Behavioural tasks as perceived by participants
As PerceivedIn Reality
1take a sip of the juice with a large insect in the plastic cupinsect was made of plastic
2remove the used toilet paper from the jar and put it back in placetoilet paper was spoiled with sweet bread to give the impression of faeces
3wipe your hands with the used tissuetissue was touched with yellow-brownish ink
4take a bite from the biscuit, which is lying next to a living wormthe worm was indeed living and was kept for the duration of the experiments in a large container with blocks of soil in it and it was taken back to the same field when experiments were completed
5lubricate the vibrator with your handsthe vibrator was clean
6insert the needle into the heart of the voodoo doll representing the person you haten/a
7this shirt belongs to a paedophile that was used during rape - take the shirt out of the bag and hug itthe shirt was new and clean
8read the story and say aloud: “It was so horny to have him (the dog) inside me”n/a
9touch the (unattached) wet human hairthe hair belonged to one of the researchers and it was wet with a neutral lubricant
10hold the bone for 5 secondsthe bone was a ‘dog’s chewing bone’ lubricated with red ink
11discard the used women tamponthe tampon was new that has socked in red ink and water
12stick a needle in the eye of a cowthe eye of the cow was real, and participants had to only touch it with the needle provided – a new eye ball was brought every day as frozen from the butcher and taken back at the end of the day for proper biohazard waste removal
13hold a bandage that was used on a wound for 5 secondsthe bandage was new and spoiled with red and brownish ink
14rub the used toothbrush back and forth on your cheek for five secondsthe toothbrush was new
15place the used panties/knickers of a woman in a bagthe panties were unused and spoiled with drops of coconut milk
16stick your finger in the bowl of used condoms and touch each one of themthe condoms were new and wet with penile lubricant
Photo: flickr/Schroblick Thanks to Jessica P. for today's ROFL!
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