title: Is disgust prepared? A preliminary examination in young children.
abstract: Children may be prepared to associate adult disgust reactions with adult disgust elicitors. To test this, three-year olds (and adults) were presented with two images and an emotive vocalization. The images and vocalizations included stimuli adults found disgusting, fear-provoking, and sad. On one set of trials, the main dependent variable (DV) was time spent looking at each image and on a second set of repeat trials the DV was knowledge of image-sound matches. Fear and disgust vocalizations were both more effective at orienting a child's attention to adult fear and disgust images, than sad vocalizations. Parental disgust sensitivity was associated with this effect, moderated by explicit matching knowledge. Matching knowledge was poor in children and good in adults. These data suggest that in children, fear and disgust vocalizations may both promote attention to stimuli that adults find disgusting and/or fear-provoking, suggesting that "preparedness" may not be wholly emotion-specific.
authors.affiliation: a Macquarie University.
authors.forename: Richard
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Stevenson
authors.forename: Megan
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Oaten
authors.forename: Trevor
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Case
authors.forename: Betty
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Repacholi
mesh_terms: D000161:Acoustic Stimulation / Q000379:methods; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology; D002675:Child, Preschool; D004644:Emotions / Q000502:physiology*; D005239:Fear / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010775:Photic Stimulation / Q000379:methods; D013997:Time Factors; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: adaptive behavior; emotion; evolutionary psychology