This Is How We Do It: Inductions, Methods, and Measurement in Disgust Research

Abstract

Although the contingencies of academic productivity tend to favour the direct translation of prior methods into our own areas of study, our thinking about disgust and any insights into human behaviour we can glean are only as good as the methods we use to study it. In contributing to work in this area, the current chapter reviews the state-of-the-art in disgust research methods. Specific sections are devoted to assessing the measurement of self-reported trait disgust, the methods used to induce disgust in experimental studies, and the possibility that we might index the presence of disgust through means that do not rely on self-report. However, while the chapter offers a somewhat idiosyncratic “how to” guide to experimental disgust induction and trait disgust measurement, it is fundamentally based around unanswered questions. Are self-reports specifically measuring disgust or are we involuntarily tapping into other emotions? Does it matter whether we induce disgust with pictures or with odour? As part of a maturing field of research, we must all start to more reflectively and systematically consider how our methods impact how we are thinking about disgust.