Individual differences in pathogen disgust predict responses to trypophobic images

Pathogen disgust is thought to function primarily to reduce exposure to infectious diseases. Recent work has found that viewing trypophobic images (i.e., images showing clusters of small holes or bumps) elicits stronger negative responses in people who report greater pathogen disgust. This association has been reported for responses to trypophobic images that pose no obvious threat of infectious disease (i.e., infectious-disease-unrelated images) and is independent of the possible effects of disgust in other domains (e.g., moral or sexual disgust). In a sample of 494 participants, we replicated the finding that pathogen disgust, but not moral or sexual disgust, predicted individual differences in the extent to which infectious-disease-unrelated images (a lotus pod and a honeycomb) elicited negative responses. These results contribute to a growing body of work that may implicate pathogen disgust in a range of attitudes to individuals, groups, and objects, even when they pose no obvious threat of infectious disease.