Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

PROP Taste Sensitivity is Related to Visceral but Not Moral Disgust

  • Published:
Chemosensory Perception

Abstract

Taste perception and the emotion of disgust are both processed by the anterior insular cortex. A current debate in the emotion and disgust literature is whether visceral and moral disgust responses are fundamentally the same. The purpose of the present study was therefore to test whether visceral and moral disgust would be responded to similarly as a function of taste sensitivity. Several disgust questionnaires measuring different components of visceral disgust (core, pathogen, sexual) and moral disgust were administered along with a 6-n-propylthiouracil (PROP) taste sensitivity test. Individuals were categorized on the basis of their responses to PROP as super-tasters, tasters, and non-tasters. PROP taster status was used as an independent variable to assess responses on the various disgust questionnaires, and PROP scores were also correlated with the disgust-dependent measures. Results showed that super-tasters were more responsive to all visceral components of emotional disgust than tasters and non-tasters, and that taste sensitivity was positively correlated with disgust responsivity. However, taste sensitivity was not related to responses concerning moral disgust in any way. Results are discussed in terms of the proposed theoretical underpinnings of emotional disgust and the physiological and neuroanatomical foundations that may mediate different forms of it.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Fig. 1

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Aleman A, Swart M (2008) Sex differences in neural activation to facial expressions denoting contempt and disgust. PLOS One 3:1–7

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bartoshuk LM, Duffy VB, Miller IJ (1994) PTC/PROP tasting: anatomy, psychophysics, and sex effects. Physiol Behav 56:1165–1171

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Bartoshuk LM, Duffy VB, Green BG, Hoffman HJ, Ko C-W, Lucchina LA, Marks LE, Snyder DJ, Weiffenbach JM (2004) Valid across-group comparisons with labeled scales: the gLMS versus magnitude matching. Physiol Behav 82:109–114

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Bloom P (2004) Descartes’ baby: how the science of child development explains what makes us human. Basic Books, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Borg JS, Lieberman D, Kiehl KA (2008) Infection, incest, and iniquity: investigating the neural correlates of disgust and morality. J Cogn Neurosci 20:1529–1546

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chapman HA, Kim DA, Susskind JM, Anderson AK (2009) In bad taste: evidence for the oral origins of moral disgust. Science 323:1222–1226

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Cisler JM, Olatunji BO, Lohr JM (2009) Disgust sensitivity and emotion regulation potentiate the effect of disgust propensity on spider fear, blood-injection-injury fear, and contamination fear. J Behav Therapy Experimental Psychiatry 40:219–229

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Curtis V, Aunger R, Rabie T (2004) Evidence that disgust evolved to protect from risk of disease. Proc Royal Society Lond B 271:S131–S133

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Darwin C (1965) The expression of emotions in man and animal. University of Chicago Press, Chicago, Original work published 1872

    Google Scholar 

  • Davey GCL (1994) Self-reported fears to common indigenous animals in an adult UK population: the role of disgust sensitivity. Br J Psychol 85:541–554

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Delwiche JF, Buletic Z, Breslin PA (2001) Relationship of papillae number to bitter intensity of quinine and PROP within and between individuals. Physiol Behav 74:329–337

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Duffy VB, Davidson AC, Kidd JR, Kidd KK, Speed WC, Pakstis AJ, Reed DA, Snyder DJ, Bartoshuk LM (2004) Bitter receptor gene (TAS2R38), 6-n-propylthiouracil(PROP) bitterness and alcohol intake. Alcohol Clinical Experimental Res 28:1629–1637

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Ekman P, Friesen WV (1975) Unmasking the face: a guide to recognizing emotional from facial clues. Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs

    Google Scholar 

  • Erden V, Basaranoglu G, Korkut Y, Delatioglu H, Yangin Z, Kiroglu S (2007) Relation between bitter taste sensitivity and incidence or intensity of propofol injection pain. Eur J Anesthesiology 24:516–520

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Eskine KJ, Kacinik NA, Prinz JJ (2011) A bad taste in the mouth: gustatory disgust influences moral judgment. Psychol Sci 22:295–299

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Galati D, Scherer KR, Ricci-Bitti PE (1997) Voluntary facial expression of emotion: comparing congenitally blind with normally sighted encoders. J Personal Soc Psychol 73:1365–1379

    Google Scholar 

  • Green BG, George P (2004) ‘Thermal taste’ predicts higher responsiveness to chemical taste and flavor. Chemical Senses 29:617–628

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Haidt J, McCauley C, Rozin P (1994) Individual differences in sensitivity to disgust: a scale sampling seven domains of disgust elicitors. Personal Individ Differ 16:701–713

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Herz RS, Hinds A (in preparation). Stealing isn’t gross: Language demonstrates how moral violations elicit anger not visceral disgust.

  • Horberg EJ, Oveis C, Keltner D, Cohen AB (2009) Disgust and the moralization of purity. J Personal Soc Psychol 97:963–976

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Inbar Y, Pizarro DA, Bloom P (2009) Conservatives are more easily disgusted than liberals. Cognition Emot 23:714–725

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kringelbach ML, de Araujo IE, Rolls ET (2004) Taste-related activity in the human dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. NeuroImage 2:781–788

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lee Y-M, Prescott J, Kim K-O (2008) PROP taster status and the rejection of foods with added tastants. Food Sci Biotechnol 17:1066–1073

    Google Scholar 

  • Levenson RW, Ekman P, Friesen WV (1990) Voluntary facial action generates emotion-specific autonomic nervous system activity. Psychophysiology 27:363–384

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Lim J, Urban L, Green BG (2008) Measures of individual differences in taste and creaminess perception. Chemical Senses 33:493–501

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Macht M, Mueller J (2007) Increased negative emotional responses in PROP super-tasters. Physiol Behav 90:466–472

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Mennella JA, Pepino MY, Duke FF, Reed DR (2011) Psychophysical dissection of genotype effects on human bitter perception. Chemical Senses 36:161–167

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Nabi RL (2002) The theoretical versus the lay meaning of disgust. Implication for emotion research. Cogn Emot 16:695–703

    Google Scholar 

  • Oaten M, Stevenson RJ, Case TI (2009) Disgust as a disease avoidance mechanism. Psychol Bull 135:303–321

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Page AC (2003) The role of disgust in faintness elicited by blood and injection stimuli. Anxiety Disorders 17:45–58

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Peleg G, Katzir G, Peleg O, Kamara M, Brodsky L, Hel-Or H, Keren D, Nevo E (2006) Hereditary family signature of facial expression. PNAS 103:15921–15926

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Phillips ML, Young AW, Senio C, Brammer M, Andres C, AJ Calder, Bullmore ET, Perrett DI, Rowland D, Williams SCR, Gray JA, David AS (1997) A specific neural substrate for perceiving facial expressions of disgust. Nature 389:495–498

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Rozin P, Fallon A (1987) A perspective on disgust. Psychol Rev 94:23–41

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Rozin P, Lowery L, Ebert R (1994) Varieties of disgust faces and the structure of disgust. J Personal Soc Psychol 66:870–881

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Rozin P, Lowery L, Imada S, Haidt J (1999) The CAD triad hypothesis. J Personal Soc Psychol 76:574–586

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Rozin P, Haidt J, McCauley CR (2008) Disgust. In: Lewis M, Haviland-Jones JM, Barrett LF (eds) Handbook of emotions, 3rd edn. Guilford Press, New York, pp 757–776

    Google Scholar 

  • Rozin P, Haidt J, Fincher K (2009) From oral to moral: is moral disgust an elaboration of a food rejection system. Science 323:1179–1180

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Small DM, Apkarian AV (2006) Increased taste intensity perception exhibited by patients with chronic back pain. Pain 120:124–130

    Google Scholar 

  • Small D (2010) Taste representation in the human insula. Brain Struct Funct 214:551–561

    Google Scholar 

  • Tepper BJ, Neilland M, Ullrich NV, Koelliker Y, Belzer LM (2010) Greater energy intake from a buffet meal in lean, young women is associated with the 6-n-propylthiouracil (PROP) non-taster phenotype. Appetite 56:104–110

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tybur JM, Griskevicius V, Lieberman D (2009) Microbes, mating and morality: individual differences in three functional domains of disgust. J Personal Soc Psychol 97:103–122

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • van Overveld WJM, de Jong PJ, Peteres ML, Cavanagh K, Davey GCL (2006) Disgust propensity and disgust sensitivity: separate constructs that are differentially related to specific fears. Personal Individ Differ 41:1241–1252

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wicker B, Keysers C, Plailly J, Royet J-P, Gallesse V, Rizzolatti G (2003) Both of us disgusted in my insula: the common neural basis of seeing and feeling disgust. Neuron 40:655–664

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Wright P, He G, Shapira NA, Goodman WK, Liu Y (2004) Disgust and the insula: fMRI responses to pictures of mutilation and contamination. Neuroreport 15:2347–2351

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior, Brown University, Providence, RI, USA

    Rachel S. Herz

Authors
  1. Rachel S. Herz
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Rachel S. Herz.

Additional information

Author Note

I am grateful to Paul Rozin for preliminary data testing and theoretical discussions, and to Linda Bartoshuk for methodological advice and supplying the PROP taste papers used in this research. Many thanks also to Deborah Atella and Michael Gabriel for data compilation.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Herz, R.S. PROP Taste Sensitivity is Related to Visceral but Not Moral Disgust. Chem. Percept. 4, 72–79 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12078-011-9089-1

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12078-011-9089-1

Keywords

Search

Navigation