Authors: Pavol Prokop Jana Fančovičová
Publish Date: 2010/05/05
Volume: 13, Issue: 1, Pages: 57-62
Abstract
Evolutionary explanations of disgust propensity propose that disgust is an adaptation which helps us to decrease the likelihood of being infected by pathogens To test this hypothesis we examined human fear disgust and selfperceived danger as a response on colourful pictures of diseaserelevant and diseaseirrelevant invertebrates Furthermore we also examined a possible link between these variables and human antiparasite behaviour We found that participants clearly distinguished between diseaserelevant and diseaseirrelevant group of animals and that females always scored higher than males Moreover there were associations between ratings of fear disgust and danger and human antiparasite behaviour Our results support the hypothesis that human emotions and behaviours are shaped by natural selection
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