Doctoral Dissertation Research: Ontogenetic and environmental origins of pathogen disgust sensitivity

长期以来，人们一直认为，厌恶情绪有助于人类避免疾病。然而，厌恶程度，也被称为厌恶敏感度，在不同的人之间可能会有很大的差异，这对他们的行为有影响。特别是，研究表明，厌恶敏感度较高的人更有动力避开特定的对象、情况和人。这个博士研究项目调查了一个广泛的问题：为什么人们对厌恶的敏感度会有所不同？一种框架表明，童年环境的不同可能会导致成人厌恶敏感度的不同。这个项目是第一个在广泛的儿童年龄范围内测量厌恶敏感度的项目之一，以了解厌恶在整个成长和发育过程中是如何变化的。研究人员还检查了文化、个人和环境变量，这些变量可能解释了个体之间厌恶敏感度的差异。这些发现可能对侧重于降低感染风险和减缓流行病发展的卫生和教育倡议有用。了解儿童何时、为什么和如何被激励以避免感染，以及这一点在个人和群体中可能如何变化，将有助于这些倡议。传染病一直是人类社会的一个长期特征。因此，人类似乎已经制定了避免感染的文化和生物策略。病原体厌恶敏感性被认为是启动回避行为的核心动机之一，但很少有研究调查它在童年时期是如何发展的，或者是什么解释了个体之间的差异。该项目检查了炎症、能量收支、对病原体暴露的控制、社会学习和性别等变量，这些变量可能解释了儿童时期病原体厌恶敏感度的变化。研究人员通过自我报告和生理测量收集了两个社区中6至18岁的儿童的这些变量，这些儿童的感染风险和获得资源的机会明显不同。这个项目的经验发现将被整合起来，以建立对病原体厌恶敏感性的个体和群体差异的生物文化理解。该项目的教育部分有助于扩大对科学的参与。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

It has long been proposed that the emotion of disgust helps humans avoid illness. However, levels of disgust, also called disgust sensitivity, can vary greatly among different individuals, which has implications for their behavior. In particular, research suggests that people higher in disgust sensitivity are more motivated to avoid certain objects, situations, and people. This doctoral research project investigates the broad question: why do people vary in their disgust sensitivity? One framework suggests that differences in the childhood environment may lead to differences in adult disgust sensitivity. This project is among the first to measure disgust sensitivity across a wide range of childhood ages to understand how disgust changes throughout growth and development. The researchers also examine cultural, individual, and environmental variables that may explain differences between individuals in their disgust sensitivity. These findings may be useful to health and education initiatives that focus on reducing infection risk and mitigating the progression of pandemics. Such initiatives will be aided by understanding when, why, and how children are motivated to avoid infection, and how this may vary across individuals and groups.Infectious disease has been a longstanding feature of human societies. As a result, humans have seemingly developed cultural and biological strategies to avoid infectious exposure. Pathogen disgust sensitivity is proposed as one of the core motivational triggers to initiate avoidant behavior, yet little research has investigated how it develops during childhood or what explains variation among individuals. This project examines variables such as inflammation, energy budget, control over pathogen exposure, social learning, and gender, that may account for variation in pathogen disgust sensitivity across childhood. The researchers collect these variables using self-report and physiological measures among children 6 to 18 in two communities with distinctly different infection risk and access to resources. The empirical findings from this project will be integrated to build a biocultural understanding of individual and group variation in pathogen disgust sensitivity. Educational components of the project contribute to the goal of broadening participation in science.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.