TY - JOUR PY - 1992// TI - Disgust sensitivity and fear of animals: Effect of exposure to violent or revulsive material JO - Anxiety, stress, and coping A1 - Webb, Katie A1 - Davey, Graham C. L. SP - 329 EP - 335 VL - 5 IS - 4 N2 - Abstract Subjects were asked to rate their fear of four categories of animals both before and after viewing one of three brief video films. Subjects watched either (a) a video depicting extreme violence, (b) a video depicting revulsive scenes from a hospital operation, or (c) a video showing neutral landscape scenes. The results suggested that exposure to violent material produced an increase in fear ratings for animals in the Hi Fear/Hi Predatory category (e.g., lion, tiger, shark) which was significantly different from a decrease in fear ratings recorded for all other categories of animals. However, exposure to revulsive material produced an increase in fear ratings to animals in both the Hi Fear/Lo Predatory category (e.g., rat, spider, snake) and the Hi Revulsion category (e.g., slug, maggot, snail) which was significantly different to the decrease in fear ratings recorded for animals in the remaining categories. The neutral landscape scenes produced a decrease in mean fear ratings for all categories of animals. These results are considered further support for a disease-avoidance model of common animal fears, and suggest a causal link between disgust sensitivity and fear of certain fear-relevant animals.
LA - SN - 1061-5806 UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10615809208248369 ID - ref1 ER -