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Long-term disgust habituation with limited generalisation in care home workers
Charlotte Edgar, Faye Chan, Thomas Armstrong, Edwin S. Dalmaijer. Not indexed, 2023-09-08
Topic: Risk, prevention and care in population studies
Abstract Countless workers handle bodily effluvia and body envelope violations every working day, and consequentially face deeply unpleasant levels of disgust. Understanding if and how they adapt can help inform policies to improve worker satisfaction and reduce staff turnover. So far, limited evidence exist that self-reported disgust is reduced (or lower to begin with) among those employed in high-disgust environments. However, it is unclear if this is due to demand effects or translates into real behavioural changes. Here, we tested healthcare assistants (N=32) employed in UK care homes and a control sample (N=50). We replicated reduced self-reported pathogen disgust sensitivity in healthcare workers compared to controls. We also found it negatively correlated with career duration, suggesting long-term habituation. Furthermore, we found that healthcare assistants showed no behavioural disgust avoidance on a web-based preferential looking task (equivalent to eye tracking). Surprisingly, this extended to disgust elicitors found outside care homes, suggesting generalisation of disgust habituation. While we found no difference between bodily effluvia (core disgust) and body envelope violations (gore disgust), generalisation did not extend to other domains: self-reported sexual and moral disgust sensitivity were not different between healthcare assistants and the control group, nor was there a correlation with career duration. In sum, our work confirms that people in high-frequency disgust employment are less sensitive to pathogen disgust. Crucially, we provide preliminary evidence that this is due to a process of long-term habituation with generalisation to disgust-elicitors within the pathogen domain, but not beyond it.
Cite this study APA, Vancouver, BibTeX · download .bib or .ris
APA 7th
Edgar, C., Chan, F., Armstrong, T., & Dalmaijer, E. S. (2023). Long-term disgust habituation with limited generalisation in care home workers. https://doi.org/10.1101/2023.09.07.23295198
Vancouver
Edgar C, Chan F, Armstrong T, Dalmaijer ES. Long-term disgust habituation with limited generalisation in care home workers. 2023. doi:10.1101/2023.09.07.23295198.
BibTeX
@article{edgar2023-f4533a3f,
author = {Edgar, Charlotte and Chan, Faye and Armstrong, Thomas and Dalmaijer, Edwin S.},
title = {{Long-term disgust habituation with limited generalisation in care home workers}},
year = {2023},
doi = {10.1101/2023.09.07.23295198},
url = {https://doi.org/10.1101/2023.09.07.23295198}
}
Built from the record alzhub holds for this paper, not looked up. This record has no journal, so the citation leaves it out. Volume, issue and page numbers are not held in the record. Check the citation against the original before you use it.
Key findings
- We replicated reduced self-reported pathogen disgust sensitivity in healthcare workers compared to controls.
- Furthermore, we found that healthcare assistants showed no behavioural disgust avoidance on a web-based preferential looking task (equivalent to eye tracking).
- While we found no difference between bodily effluvia (core disgust) and body envelope violations (gore disgust), generalisation did not extend to other domains: self-reported sexual and moral disgust sensitivity were not different between healthcare assistants and the control group, nor was there a correlation with career duration.
Why it matters
This small study of 32 healthcare assistants in UK care homes found reduced self-reported pathogen disgust sensitivity compared with controls, which was negatively correlated with career duration. It found no behavioural disgust avoidance on a web-based looking task, and generalisation did not extend to sexual or moral disgust.
Study details
- Participants32
- Evidence strengthLow
How this study scored 41/100
Published in a peer-reviewed journal. Scored zero for study design, effect reported and randomised / blinded because the record does not state it. We have no data on journal's citation record, times cited, citations per year, impact for its field and year, still being cited, senior author's track record, institution's track record and multi-centre collaboration, so those were left out: it earned 26 of the 64 points we could judge it on, which is 41 out of 100.
| Component | Points | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Journal tier | 7 / 10 | Tier 3 — peer-reviewed journal (Not indexed) |
| Journal's citation record | — / 4 | No journal record from OpenAlex — left out of this score |
| Study design | 0 / 12 | No study design recorded — scores zero, not guessed (not stated in the record — scored 0) |
| Strength of evidence | 1 / 5 | Rated “low” in our summary |
| Peer-review validation | 10 / 10 | Peer-reviewed. Published as an article in a named peer-reviewed journal. |
| How recent | 3 / 5 | 2023 — within 6 year(s) of the newest study here |
| Sample size | 1 / 4 | 32 participants |
| Effect reported | 0 / 3 | No effect size reported — scores zero (not stated in the record — scored 0) |
| Studied in people | 3 / 3 | Studied in people (participant count stated) |
| Randomised / blinded | 0 / 2 | No randomisation or blinding stated — scores zero (not stated in the record — scored 0) |
| Times cited | — / 7 | No citation count (not found in OpenAlex) — left out of this score |
| Citations per year | — / 5 | No citation count or no year — left out of this score |
| Impact for its field and year | — / 6 | No field-weighted citation impact (OpenAlex has none yet) — left out of this score |
| Cited by studies here | 0 / 6 | No other study in this library cites it |
| Still being cited | — / 4 | No yearly citation counts — left out of this score |
| Senior author's track record | — / 4 | Senior author's record not available — left out of this score |
| Institution's track record | — / 3 | No institution listed in OpenAlex — left out of this score |
| Multi-centre collaboration | — / 3 | Institutions not listed — left out of this score |
| Indexed in PubMed | 1 / 2 | Not in PubMed, but has a DOI |
| Free to read | 0 / 2 | Behind a paywall — scores zero |
| Points | 26 / 64 | Scored on 12 of 20 parts. We have no data for the rest, so they are left out: 26 of the 64 points we could judge it on is 41 out of 100. |
| Total | 41 / 100 | — |
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