Parents Develop Long‐Term Disgust Habituation, but Only After Beginning to Wean Their Children

Bibliographic Data

ID21391823
AuthorsYifan Huang (0000-0002-0325-4706, School of Psychological Science University of Bristol Bristol UK), Ivo E Dalmaijer‐Denning (University Day Nursery University of Bristol Bristol UK), Joris A Dalmaijer‐Denning (University Day Nursery University of Bristol Bristol UK), Thomas Armstrong (0000-0002-9153-8070, Department of Psychology Whitman College Walla Walla Washington USA), Edwin S Dalmaijer (0000-0003-3241-0760, School of Psychological Science University of Bristol Bristol UK, corresponding author)
Year2026
Volume67
Issue3
Pages787-800
Publication date2026-06-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueScandinavian Journal of Psychology (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0036-5564 • E-ISSN: 1467-9450
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/sjop.70069
PMID41495875
OpenAlexW7118514388
LanguageEN
References cited58

Disgust helps humans avoid potentially pathogenic substances such as bodily effluvia. This reduces illness risks and is difficult to overcome with cognitive strategies or through short‐term habituation (minutes to hours). Whether long‐term habituation (months to years) exists is an unsolved question. While regular professional exposure to disgust elicitors is associated with lower disgust sensitivity and avoidance, this could reflect selection and survivorship bias. We use the natural quasi‐experiment of parenthood: it greatly increases exposure to bodily effluvia, but disgust does not usually inspire individuals to start or stop being a parent. Parents ( N = 99) and controls ( N = 50) completed self‐report and behavioral avoidance measures. We used parent‐specific items in disgust‐sensitivity questionnaires, and child‐related stimuli (soiled diapers) in a preferential‐looking task. These included diapers with pre‐weaning (yellow and runny) or post‐weaning feces (adult‐like). While the control group showed the expected behavioral avoidance, parents of weaning or weaned children showed almost no avoidance of stimuli depicting child‐related or general bodily effluvia. These results suggest that parents habituated to disgust induced by feces in diapers, and that this had generalized to other bodily effluvia. Contrary to our expectations, parents of pre‐weaning children showed similar disgust avoidance to the control group, even if they had older children. This could point to an adaptive response to reduce the risk of illness in young infants. After the sensitive milk‐feeding stage, continuous exposure to their children's bodily effluvia inoculates parents to disgust

Cognition · Control (management) · Disgust · Habituation · Perception · Weaning · Eating Disorders and Behaviors · Pain Management and Placebo Effect · Psychology of Moral and Emotional Judgment