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Disgust

  • Living reference work entry
  • First Online:
Encyclopedia of Evolutionary Psychological Science

  • 87 Accesses

Synonyms

Abhorrence; Detestation; Grossed out; Repulsion; Revulsion

Definition

A feeling of intense displeasure or revulsion in response to an offensive or revolting object, person, or behavior

Introduction

An evolutionary perspective on emotions holds that the physiological, psychological, and behavioral characteristics of a specific emotion, such as disgust, should be seen as evolved features that have been useful to humans at some point during our evolutionary history. Individuals equipped with a genetic makeup that enabled them to respond to a certain stimulus or situation by experiencing a certain emotion were better able to cope with and respond to recurring challenges and opportunities and subsequently increased their reproductive success (e.g., Cosmides and Tooby 2000). Seen from this perspective, the advantages that disgust has offered to ancestral humans are likely to have been communicative, motivational, physiological, and influential for future behaviors. In the following...

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Work & Social Psychology, Maastricht University, PO Box 616, 6200 MD, Maastricht, The Netherlands

    Karlijn Massar

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  1. Karlijn Massar
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Correspondence to Karlijn Massar .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Oakland Univ Dept of Psycholgy, Rochester, Michigan, USA

    Viviana Weekes-Shackelford

  2. Department of Psychology, Oakland University, Rochester, Michigan, USA

    Todd K. Shackelford

  3. Rochester, Michigan, USA

    Viviana A. Weekes-Shackelford

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© 2016 Springer International Publishing AG

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Massar, K. (2016). Disgust. In: Weekes-Shackelford, V., Shackelford, T., Weekes-Shackelford, V. (eds) Encyclopedia of Evolutionary Psychological Science. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16999-6_2972-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16999-6_2972-1

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-16999-6

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