Automaticity and specificitiy of disgust evaluations

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Manfred Schmitt
• Subject Area: Personality Psychology, Clinical and Medical Psychology, Methodology
• Term: from 2014 to 2019
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 265680355

Evidence for automatic affect-specific evaluation processes will be obtained from an individual differences perspective in the domain of disgust. Evaluative dispositions, such as disgust sensitivity, will serve as independent variables. Behavioral indicators of evaluations, such as the facial expression of disgust, will serve as dependent variables. The affect-specificity of evaluations will be investigated (a) by contrasting disgust evaluation with another affect-specific evaluation (fear) and with an affect-unspecific evaluation of valence, (b) by investigating the effects of disgust sensitivity, anxiety, positive and negative affectivity, and attitudes toward foreigners on each of these evaluations, and (c) by comparing the strength of these effects in a disgust-eliciting setting, a fear-eliciting setting, and a setting involving a confrontation with a foreigner. The affect-specificity of evaluations will be demonstrated if evaluative dispositions have stronger effects on matching than on mismatching evaluations. This means that disgust sensitivity predicts disgust reactions better than it predicts fear reactions. It will also mean that disgust reactions can be predicted better from disgust sensitivity than from anxiety or negative affectivity. The automaticity of affect-specific evaluations will be investigated (a) for the dependent variables by differentiating automatic and controlled indicators of disgust- and fear-evaluations and general liking versus disliking, (b) for the independent variables by measuring implicit and explicit dispositions (disgust sensitivity, dispositional anxiety, dispositional positive and negative affectivity, attitudes toward foreigners), and (c) by testing moderator effects of self-control resources. Estimating moderator effects will help to disentangle automatic and controlled evaluation processes. This is necessary because behavioral indicators of evaluations are outcomes that involve mixed processes. Dispositional disgust sensitivity, dispositional anxiety, dispositional positive and negative affectivity, and attitudes toward foreigners will be measured as implicit and as explicit dispositions. Behavioral indicators of evaluations will be measured on the automatic level (facial expression, nonverbal behavior) and the controlled level (performing tasks, making decisions). Self-control resources will be measured on the individual level using self-control scales and a working memory capacity test. Additionally, control resources will be manipulated experimentally using (a) a dual task and (b) transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS; Angelakis & Liouta, 2011). We assume that high self-control will amplify the effect of explicit evaluative dispositions and mitigate the effect of implicit evaluative dispositions on actual evaluations, whereas low self-control will amplify the effect of implicit evaluative dispositions and mitigate the effect of explicit evaluative dispositions on actual evaluations.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• Co-Investigators: Professorin Dr. Anna Baumert; Professor Dr. Roland Neumann