Disgust versus Lust: Exploring the Interactions of Disgust and Fear with Sexual Arousal in Women

“…In a similar vein, it has been shown that in women sexual excitation can have an acute attenuating effect on both the experience of disgust and disgust-induced avoidance (Borg & de Jong, 2012). In apparent contrast, Fleischman, Hamilton, Fessler, and Meston (2015) did not find an influence of film-induced sexual excitation on subjective disgust in women. However, in the latter study, disgust was elicited by pictures instead of actual disgust-eliciting stimuli and relied on passively viewing stimuli instead of handling stimuli, which both might have reduced the sensitivity of the design to detect an influence of sexual arousal on disgust.…”