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• 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., (Copyright © 2019 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.)