Disgust and disgust sensitivity in spider phobia: Facial EMG in response to spider and oral disgust imagery

Increasing evidence suggests that disgust and fear of contamination is involved in spider phobia. Yet, because the evidence exclusively relies on self-report data it can not be ruled out these findings are produced by mechanisms such as a negative attribution bias, or imprecise emotional labeling. Therefore, the present study sought to complement these previous studies by including physiological measures (i.e., facial EMG). Highly spider fearful (n = 24) and explicitly nonfearful women (n = 24) were exposed to general disgust-eliciting and spider relevant material using guided imagery (general disgust, spider) and video-exposure (general disgust only). Sustaining the idea that spider fearful individuals are characterized by a heightened disgust sensitivity, exposure to general (oral) disgust elicitors resulted in relatively strong disgust responses (self-report and EMG) in spider fearful women. In support of the idea that disgust is implicated in phobics emotional responding, spider-relevant imagery elicited disgust responses (self-report and EMG) in addition to fear. Accentuating the importance of contamination ideation in spider phobia, participants' sensitivity to contagion (as indexed by the Magic Subscale of the Disgust Scale [Personality and Individual Differences 16 (1994) 701.]) was the single best predictor of elicited fear during spider imagery. Together, the available evidence converges to the conclusion that fear of contamination plays a pivotal role in the development of spider phobia. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science Inc. All rights reserved.