Surreal illustration depicting the connection between disgust and anxiety.

Is Disgust the Silent Driver of Anxiety? How Our Brains Misinterpret Threats

Beau Callahan in Mind & Education August 2025 • 4 min read.

"New research sheds light on the surprising role of disgust in anxiety disorders and how this 'disgust bias' impacts our mental well-being."

For years, fear has been the primary focus in understanding anxiety disorders. However, recent research highlights the significant role that disgust plays in the development and maintenance of these conditions. While theoretical and empirical research on disgust has been limited, the past decade has seen a surge in studies implicating disgust in disorders like obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), blood-injection-injury (BII) phobia, and spider phobia.

Disgust is a basic emotion recognized across cultures, producing unique facial expressions and subjective experiences like revulsion and nausea. Initially viewed as a food rejection mechanism to avoid contamination, disgust is now understood as a broader protective response against all sources of contaminants.

While disgust's role in anxiety disorders is increasingly recognized, it remains unclear whether disgust directly causes or merely exacerbates anxiety. Some argue it's a secondary phenomenon to heightened fear, while others suggest it induces a negative interpretational bias, indirectly contributing to anxious psychopathology.

The 'Disgust Bias': How Disgust Warps Our Perception of Threats

Surreal illustration depicting the connection between disgust and anxiety.

A study published in the Journal of Experimental Psychopathology explored whether induced disgust facilitates an interpretational bias and whether factors related to anxiety and disgust sensitivity moderate this bias. Participants were assigned to one of three groups: neutral, anxiety, or disgust mood induction. They then completed a homophone spelling task to assess their interpretational biases.

The study revealed that participants who experienced induced anxiety or disgust interpreted significantly more neutral/threatening homophones in a threatening way compared to those in the neutral mood induction group. This supports the idea that experienced disgust generates a threat interpretation bias, implicating disgust as a causal factor in anxious psychopathology.

Anxiety and Threat Perception: Experiencing anxiety can significantly alter how we perceive neutral situations, making us more likely to see them as threatening.
Disgust's Influence: Similarly, induced disgust can also lead to a heightened sense of threat, showcasing its potential impact on our interpretation of the world around us.
Homophone Test Insights: Using homophone spelling tasks helps reveal these hidden biases, providing a method to measure how emotions like anxiety and disgust can warp our perceptions.

Interestingly, subsequent analyses indicated that anxiety sensitivity, generalized anxiety, disgust sensitivity, and propensity did not moderate the disgust-generated interpretation bias. This suggests the relationship is more complex than initially thought, warranting further investigation into the mechanisms at play.

Practical Implications: Managing Disgust and Anxiety in Everyday Life

While the study didn't find moderators for the disgust bias, understanding the connection between disgust and anxiety can still provide valuable insights. Here are some practical approaches:

About this Article -

This article was crafted using a human-AI hybrid and collaborative approach. AI assisted our team with initial drafting, research insights, identifying key questions, and image generation. Our human editors guided topic selection, defined the angle, structured the content, ensured factual accuracy and relevance, refined the tone, and conducted thorough editing to deliver helpful, high-quality information.See our About page for more information.

This article is based on research published under:

DOI-LINK: 10.5127/jep.007410, Alternate LINK

Title: The Disgust Threat Interpretation Bias Is Not Moderated By Anxiety &Amp; Disgust Sensitivity

Subject: Psychiatry and Mental health

Journal: Journal of Experimental Psychopathology

Publisher: SAGE Publications

Authors: Emily Leathers-Smith, Graham C. L. Davey

Published: 2011-01-01

Everything You Need To Know

What is 'disgust' and how has its understanding evolved?

Disgust is a basic emotion that elicits revulsion and nausea, acting as a protective response against potential contaminants. It was originally seen as a mechanism for food rejection, but the understanding has expanded to include protection from various sources of contamination.

Can you explain the 'disgust bias' and how it affects our perception?

The 'disgust bias' refers to the way induced disgust can warp our perception of threats. Experiencing disgust can lead individuals to interpret neutral situations as threatening, highlighting disgust's impact on how we perceive the world. A study used a homophone spelling task and showed people experiencing induced disgust were more likely to interpret neutral/threatening homophones in a threatening way.

How is disgust related to anxiety disorders?

Recent research has identified a connection between disgust and certain anxiety disorders such as obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), blood-injection-injury (BII) phobia, and spider phobia. While fear has historically been the primary focus in understanding anxiety disorders, the role of disgust is now recognized as significant.

What was the methodology of the study looking at the connection between disgust and anxiety and were there any unexpected results?

A study published in the Journal of Experimental Psychopathology explored whether induced disgust facilitates an interpretational bias by assigning participants to neutral, anxiety, or disgust mood induction groups. Participants then completed a homophone spelling task to assess their interpretational biases. Subsequent analyses indicated that anxiety sensitivity, generalized anxiety, disgust sensitivity, and propensity did not moderate the disgust-generated interpretation bias.

What did the research reveal about the impact of disgust and anxiety on threat perception?

The study reveals that both induced anxiety and induced disgust can cause individuals to interpret neutral situations as threatening. This is significant because it suggests that disgust, like anxiety, can play a causal role in anxious psychopathology by creating a threat interpretation bias. While the study didn't find moderators for the disgust bias, understanding the connection between disgust and anxiety can still provide valuable insights.