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The present study aimed to investigate the relationship between people's food disgust sensitivity and their food hygiene behaviour. We asked 1066 participants in Switzerland to complete an online survey. They provided information on how often they performed certain hygiene behaviours, how likely they would be to eat different food items after they had passed their expiration dates, and, using a specific scenario, how they would decide whether milk was safe to drink after they forgot to put it in the refrigerator overnight. We found that food disgust sensitivity was a significant predictor of participants' edibility assessments and their reported frequencies of hygiene behaviour after controlling for age and sex. Our data suggested that food disgust was a strong predictor of food safety behaviour in the domestic kitchen. Learning more about people's behaviour is crucial for the successful design of interventions to improve hygiene behaviour and the prevention of foodborne diseases. • Food disgust sensitivity is a significant predictor of edibility assessments. • Disgust can be used for food safety interventions. • Food disgust sensitivity is a significant predictor of food safety behaviour. • With increasing disgust sensitivity, people choose less invasive assessment methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present set of studies developed and tested the Food Disgust Picture Scale (FDPS). This is a tool for the assessment of food disgust sensitivity that will measure disgust and predict possible reactions. This eight-picture tool can be used in complement to or as a replacement for currently available text-based measures. In an exploratory Study 1 (N = 57), we constructed a scale consisting of eight pictures. Most of them were taken from validated picture databases. They proved powerful in the assessment of food disgust sensitivity. Study 2 built on these results and refined the scale by substituting pictures from Study 1 with freely available images displaying similar content. The basic structure of the FDPS was then replicated in a bigger sample of Swiss adults (N = 538). Correlational analyses using the eight-item Food Disgust Scale (FDS short), the revised version of the Disgust Scale (DS-R), and the food neophobia scale (FNS) supported the convergent validity of the FDPS. In Study 3 (N = 226), we used a test-retest design to demonstrate the short-term stability of the FDPS. As a result of these studies, the present work provides a short and comprehensive measure of food disgust sensitivity. This novel approach of using pictures to induce a disgust response independently of language significantly facilitates intercultural research on disgust. The FDPS will further contribute to the understanding of food-related disgust and its impact on our food choices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Our study is the first to validate the FDS short using olfactory stimuli. • The disgusting odours were significantly correlated with the FDS short. • Disgust reaction depends on the sensory channel used for the disgust stimulus. Individual disgust reactions can be elicited through different types of sensory stimuli. Most well-known scales measuring disgust are text-based, thus more cognitive stimuli. This study aimed to validate the food disgust scale using olfactory stimuli related to food. For this, 150 participants were invited to our lab to rate different odours for the level of disgust evoked. Exploratory factor analysis (principal axis factoring) revealed two factors. The seven more disgusting items loaded on a first factor, whereas the two less disgusting items loaded on a second factor. The seven items loading on Factor 1 had acceptable reliability (Cronbach's α = 0.73, McDonald's Ω = 0.72). Further, Factor Score 1 was significantly correlated with the FDS short, a food disgust sensitivity questionnaire (r = 0.40, p <.001). We conclude that food disgust sensitivity can help predict individuals' odour perception and our data support the incremental validity of the FDS short. Our study is the first to validate the FDS short using olfactory stimuli. Finally, our study indicates that there is significant potential for the creation of a food disgust odour scale. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Feelings of disgust, a disease avoidance emotion, vary among individuals. The present study investigated if individual differences in pathogen disgust sensitivity predict the level of disgust evoked by crowded places. Interested in the universality of this relationship, we studied it across countries (Study 1), and examined temporal differences in pathogen disgust sensitivity (Studies 2 and 3). Participants completed a pathogen disgust scale and rated the level of disgust evoked by two crowded situations. Data were collected in 2018 (before the COVID-19 pandemic), in 2020 (at the height of the pandemic) and in 2022 (later in the pandemic). Across studies and countries, individuals' pathogen disgust sensitivity predicted the disgust evoked by the situations. Moreover, the data revealed a significant increase in pathogen disgust from 2018 to 2020, most likely because of higher pathogen presence during the pandemic, before significantly decreasing in 2022 after the pandemic had progressed. This study captures a rare opportunity, investigating how these crises relate to pathogen disgust sensitivity and the perception of crowded spaces. Further, our longitudinal study is among the first showing changes in pathogen disgust sensitivity over time and monitoring the effect of the pandemic. [Display omitted] • A temporary increase in pathogen disgust sensitivity was found for the pandemic. • After that, pathogen disgust levels decreased again in 2022. • Patterns of pathogen disgust are similar across eleven countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Disgust can be elicited in a virtual environment. • Virtual disgust stimuli influence participants' behaviour. • Virtual reality can be used to introduce disgust elicitors. • Virtual reality is a powerful and promising tool for use in disgust research. This study was the first to use virtual reality for disgust research and pursued two aims. First, we explored whether it was possible to induce disgust in a virtual environment. Second, we examined the relationship between food disgust sensitivity, presence (a psychological state of "being there"), and participants' willingness to eat a food item after exposure to a virtual disgust cue. We asked 100 participants to eat chocolate and complete a tasting experiment within a virtual environment while wearing a head-mounted HTC Vive device. The control group (n = 50) saw a piece of chocolate appear in the virtual environment on a table in front of them before being asked to take and eat it. The disgust group (n = 50) saw a dog that walked across the table and stopped halfway to produce dog faeces that looked like a piece of chocolate. Subsequently, participants were asked to eat a real piece of chocolate. In both groups, participants were given the opportunity to refuse consumption. Participants in the experimental condition were more likely to refuse consumption than those in the control condition. Furthermore, in the experimental condition, we found that physical presence mediated the relationship between participants' food disgust sensitivity and willingness to eat the chocolate. Our data suggested that virtual reality is a valid way to evoke disgust for the purposes of research and that people who are disgust sensitive have more difficulty ignoring virtual disgust cues than people who are less disgust sensitive. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• The FDPS was compared cross-nationally between Switzerland and China. • The FDPS is a valid tool to be used in Chinese samples. • Correlations between the FDPS and the FNS were similar in Switzerland and China. The Food Disgust Picture Scale (FDPS) is a newly developed picture tool that can be used to conduct cross-cultural assessments of food disgust sensitivity. It consists of eight food-related pictures, which participants rate according to the level of disgust they evoke. Due to the undeniable influence of culture on what individuals consider as disgusting, the FDPS's validity across different food cultures is an interesting topic for research. The aim of the present study was to conduct a cross-national comparison of the FDPS in Switzerland and China. In total, 576 participants were recruited in China and 538 were recruited in Switzerland. The usability and construct validity of the FDPS were compared between the two countries using confirmatory factor analyses. In the current study we present two main findings. First, dropping one of the meat-related items and thereby reducing the eight-item FDPS to seven items improved the model fit in the Chinese (CFI = 0.98) and Swiss (CFI = 0.98) samples. Furthermore, it showed that the scale is a valid tool for the assessment of food disgust sensitivity in China. Second, using nested model comparisons, the present study has provided support for the model's invariance across the two countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The cross-cultural testing of scales represents an important step in the scale validation process. The present study evaluated whether the eight-item short version of the recently developed Food Disgust Scale (FDS-short) is a reliable and valid tool for measuring food disgust sensitivity in ten countries: Australia, China, England, France, Germany, Mexico, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, and the USA. In an online survey, the participants (N = 6128) answered items from the FDS-short and other scales related to (food) disgust sensitivity so as to test the construct and criterion validity of the FDS-short. Confirmatory factor analysis of the one-factor structure of the FDS-short revealed an adequate to good model fit in all the countries except for China. Multiple group analysis to test measurement invariance showed the FDS-short to be metrically invariant in all the tested countries (except for China) relative to Australia. With regard to the construct validity, significant positive correlations were observed in all the countries between the FDS-short and pathogen disgust sensitivity, sexual disgust sensitivity, moral disgust sensitivity, germ aversion, and food neophobia. Criterion validity of the FDS-short in all the tested countries was confirmed by the positive correlations between it and having a sensitive stomach, experiencing gastrointestinal complaints after eating animal-based foods (except for France and Germany), and the perceived infection risk of food-borne diseases in one's country. The direction of the correlations indicated that for each country, those with higher FDS-short scores also scored higher on all the tested constructs than those with lower FDS-short scores. Taken together, the present results indicate that the FDS-short is a reliable and valid tool for assessing food disgust sensitivity across countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]