Disgust, creatureliness and the accessibility of death‐related thoughts
Abstract
From an existential terror management theory perspective, disgusting stimuli are threatening to human beings because they make salient people's vulnerability to death. Two studies were designed to assess this proposition by measuring implicit death‐related ideation after individuals were presented with stimuli that either were or were not disgusting, under conditions in which the similarities of humans to other animals or the uniquely human aspects of people were made salient. In Study 1, in which rather extreme disgust‐eliciting pictures were used, disgusting stimuli led to higher death‐thought accessibility than neutral pictures regardless of whether or not participants had previously been primed with similarities between humans and other animals. In Study 2, in which milder verbal disgust‐eliciting stimuli were used, disgusting stimuli led to heightened death‐thought accessibility only when human‐animal similarities were first primed. Implications for the regulation and humanization of the human body and its functions are discussed. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
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To be reminded that one is an animal is to be reminded that one is a bleeding, defecating, and ultimately expiring organism.
“To be reminded that one is an animal is in effect to be reminded that one is a bleeding, defecating, and ultimately expiring organism”
From Disgusting Bodies, Disgusting Religion: The Biology of Tantra (2011) · cites this paper as Cox et al. 2007
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Death Awareness and Terror Management Theory
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Bad healthy state compress temporal extension both in past and future orientations
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- Authors
- Cox, C. R., Goldenberg, J. L., Pyszczynski, T., & Weise, D.
- Affiliations
- University of Missouri (US)
- University of South Florida (US)
- University of Colorado Colorado Springs (US)
- Corresponding author
- Cox, Cathy R.
- Venue
- European Journal of Social Psychology
- Publisher
- Wiley
- Published
- 2007-04-25
- Volume
- 37
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 494-507
- ISSN
- 0046-2772 (ISSN-L)
- 1099-0992
- OpenAlex
- W1993252160
- Cited by
- 100
- References
- 6
- Citations by year
- 2026: 2 · 2025: 3 · 2024: 2 · 2023: 3 · 2022: 4 · 2021: 4 · 2020: 7 · 2019: 9 · 2018: 6 · 2017: 3 · 2016: 3 · 2015: 9 · 2014: 4 · 2013: 9 · 2012: 8
- FWCI
- 4.73
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- European Journal of Social Psychology (publishedVersion)
- Digital Commons - University of South Florida (University of South Florida) (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Death Anxiety and Social Exclusion
- Social Sciences › Anthropology › Death, Funerary Practices, and Mourning
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Psychology of Moral and Emotional Judgment
- Keywords
- disgust, fear of death, terror management theory, human-animal similarity, human uniqueness, implicit cognition, priming
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