Doctoral Dissertation Research: Ontogenetic and environmental origins of pathogen disgust sensitivity

博士论文研究：病原体厌恶敏感性的个体发生和环境起源

• 批准号: 2149052
• 负责人: Carolyn Hodges-Simeon
• 金额: $ 2.51万
• 依托单位: Trustees of Boston University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2022
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2022-05-01 至 2024-04-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2149052&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Doctoral; Dissertation; Research; Ontogenetic; environmental

It has long been proposed that the emotion of disgust helps humans avoid illness. However, levels of disgust, also called disgust sensitivity, can vary greatly among different individuals, which has implications for their behavior. In particular, research suggests that people higher in disgust sensitivity are more motivated to avoid certain objects, situations, and people. This doctoral research project investigates the broad question: why do people vary in their disgust sensitivity? One framework suggests that differences in the childhood environment may lead to differences in adult disgust sensitivity. This project is among the first to measure disgust sensitivity across a wide range of childhood ages to understand how disgust changes throughout growth and development. The researchers also examine cultural, individual, and environmental variables that may explain differences between individuals in their disgust sensitivity. These findings may be useful to health and education initiatives that focus on reducing infection risk and mitigating the progression of pandemics. Such initiatives will be aided by understanding when, why, and how children are motivated to avoid infection, and how this may vary across individuals and groups.Infectious disease has been a longstanding feature of human societies. As a result, humans have seemingly developed cultural and biological strategies to avoid infectious exposure. Pathogen disgust sensitivity is proposed as one of the core motivational triggers to initiate avoidant behavior, yet little research has investigated how it develops during childhood or what explains variation among individuals. This project examines variables such as inflammation, energy budget, control over pathogen exposure, social learning, and gender, that may account for variation in pathogen disgust sensitivity across childhood. The researchers collect these variables using self-report and physiological measures among children 6 to 18 in two communities with distinctly different infection risk and access to resources. The empirical findings from this project will be integrated to build a biocultural understanding of individual and group variation in pathogen disgust sensitivity. Educational components of the project contribute to the goal of broadening participation in science.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

长期以来，人们一直建议厌恶的情绪有助于人类避免疾病。但是，厌恶的程度，也称为厌恶的敏感性，在不同的个体中可能会有很大的不同，这对他们的行为具有影响。特别是，研究表明，厌恶敏感性更高的人更有动力避免某些物体，情况和人。这个博士研究项目调查了一个广泛的问题：为什么人们在厌恶敏感性方面有所不同？一个框架表明，儿童期环境的差异可能导致成人厌恶敏感性的差异。该项目是衡量各种儿童年龄段的厌恶敏感性的最早的项目之一，以了解整个生长和发展过程中的厌恶如何变化。研究人员还检查文化，个体和环境变量，这些变量可能解释了个体厌恶敏感性之间的差异。这些发现可能对侧重于降低感染风险并减轻大流行病的健康和教育计划有用。这样的举措将通过理解何时，为什么以及如何激励避免感染的动机以及如何在个人和群体中有所不同。结果，人类看似发展了文化和生物学策略，以避免传染性暴露。病原体厌恶的敏感性被提出为启动回避行为的核心动机触发因素之一，但很少研究研究了它在童年时期的发展或解释个人之间的变化的原因。该项目研究了诸如炎症，能源预算，对病原体暴露，社会学习和性别的控制等变量，这可能解释了整个儿童期病原体厌恶敏感性的差异。研究人员使用自我报告和生理措施在两个社区中有6至18名儿童的生理措施收集这些变量，这些社区的感染风险截然不同，并且获得资源。该项目的经验发现将集成，以建立对病原体厌恶灵敏度的个体和群体变化的生物文化理解。该项目的教育组成部分有助于扩大对科学的参与的目标。该奖项反映了NSF的法定任务，并且使用基金会的知识分子优点和更广泛的影响审查标准，被认为值得通过评估来获得支持。