The Emotion of Disgust among Medical and Psychology Students

• DOI: 10.20944/preprints202007.0111.v1
• Publication Date: 2020-07-09T03:54:38Z
• Authors: Artemios Pehlivan...; Niki Pehlivanidi; Katerina Papaniko...; Vassileios Mantas; Elpida Bertou; Theodoros Chalimo...; Vana Sypsa; Charalambos Papag...
• Keywords: psychiatry_mental_health_studies; 4. Education; 05 social sciences; disgust; R; medical students; Article; DS-R; 3. Good health; specialization; academic orientation; Medicine; 0501 psychology and cognitive sciences; psychology students

Disgust evolved as a way to protect one’s self from illness. DS-R measures disgust propensity of three kinds of disgust (Core, Animal Reminder and Contamination). Although the DS-R scale was refined mainly with young and largely female student population its impact on educational orientation has not been assessed. In the present study we examined the DS-R scoring and the choice of postgraduate studies in medical (n= 94) and psychology (n= 97) students. They responded to an anonymous web-based survey and completed the DS-R and a questionnaire on their demographics and plans for postgraduate studies. Female students outnumbered males (3:1) and scored higher in Total DS-R score (median: 59 vs. 50, p<0.05). Psychology students scored higher in all three kinds of disgust (p<0.05), indicating a higher level of disease avoidance. Medical students willing to follow Internal Medicine scored higher in Core Disgust (p<0.05) while psychology students willing to study Experimental Psychology scored lower in Animal Reminder subscale (p<0.001). Also, the higher the psychology students scored in Core Disgust scale the higher was the probability to choose Experimental Psychology. In conclusion, disgust propensity as rated by DS-R differentiates medical from psychology students and is also related to orientation preferences in postgraduate studies.