Disgust Proneness and the Perception of Disgust-Evoking Pictures: An Eye-Tracking Experiment

Disgust has been conceptualized as an emotion which promotes disease-avoidance behavior. The present eye-tracking experiment investigated whether disgust-evoking stimuli provoke specific eye movements and pupillary responses. Forty-three women viewed images depicting disgusting, fear-eliciting, neut...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of psychophysiology 2016-07, Vol.30 (3), p.124-129
Main Authors: Schienle, Anne, Übel, Sonja, Gremsl, Andreas, Schöngassner, Florian, Körner, Christof
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Disgust
Female
Human
Pupil (Eye)
Size
Visual Tracking
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Summary:Disgust has been conceptualized as an emotion which promotes disease-avoidance behavior. The present eye-tracking experiment investigated whether disgust-evoking stimuli provoke specific eye movements and pupillary responses. Forty-three women viewed images depicting disgusting, fear-eliciting, neutral items and fractals while their eye movements (fixation duration and frequency, blinking rate, saccade amplitude) and pupil size were recorded. Disgust and fear ratings for the pictures as well as trait disgust and trait anxiety were assessed. The disgust pictures evoked the target emotion specifically and prompted characteristic scanning patterns. The participants made more and shorter fixations when looking at the repulsive pictures compared to all other categories. Moreover, state and trait disgust of the participants correlated negatively with their pupil size during disgust elicitation. Our data point to a disgust-specific visual exploration behavior, which possibly supports the fast identification of health-threatening aspects of a stimulus.
ISSN:0269-8803
2151-2124
DOI:10.1027/0269-8803/a000162