Not so different anymore? Women's and men's disgust sensitivity becomes similar with increasing age

IF 2.5 3区医学 Q2 BEHAVIORAL SCIENCES

Physiology & Behavior Pub Date : 2025-03-17 DOI:10.1016/j.physbeh.2025.114884

Anne Berthold , Angela Bearth , Jeanine Ammann , Michael Siegrist

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Abstract

Previous research provides ample evidence that women experience more disgust than men. The most prominent explanation for these effects is that women are more careful and sensitive about their health due to the possibility of harming potential offspring. Given that the probability for women to give birth is decreasing after a certain age (i.e., menopause), we assume that differences between men and women might be smaller or even faded away over time. To test this hypothesis, we revisited several data sets (in total N = 28′059) containing information about sex, age, and variables related to disgust. The predicted pattern was found for food disgust sensitivity, food neophobia, health-wise worries about food, and contamination fear. In all presented studies, the scores of younger women were higher compared to those of younger males, but after a certain age, sex differences were less pronounced or even non-existent. We discuss how considering the factor age together with individuals sex helps us to gain more insight in the dynamics of disgust and vulnerability.

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不再那么不同了吗？随着年龄的增长，女性和男性的厌恶敏感性变得相似。

先前的研究提供了充分的证据，表明女性比男性更容易感到厌恶。对这些影响最突出的解释是，由于可能伤害潜在的后代，女性对自己的健康更加小心和敏感。考虑到女性在某个年龄（即更年期）后生育的概率正在下降，我们假设男女之间的差异可能会随着时间的推移而缩小甚至消失。为了验证这一假设，我们重新审视了几个包含性别、年龄和与厌恶相关变量信息的数据集（总共N=28'059）。在食物厌恶敏感性、新食物恐惧症、对食物的健康担忧和污染恐惧中发现了预测模式。在所有的研究中，年轻女性的得分都高于年轻男性，但在一定年龄之后，性别差异就不那么明显了，甚至不存在了。我们讨论了如何将年龄因素与个体性别因素结合起来，帮助我们在厌恶和脆弱的动态中获得更多的洞察力。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Physiology & Behavior 医学-行为科学

CiteScore

5.70

自引率

3.40%

发文量

274

审稿时长

47 days

期刊介绍： Physiology & Behavior is aimed at the causal physiological mechanisms of behavior and its modulation by environmental factors. The journal invites original reports in the broad area of behavioral and cognitive neuroscience, in which at least one variable is physiological and the primary emphasis and theoretical context are behavioral. The range of subjects includes behavioral neuroendocrinology, psychoneuroimmunology, learning and memory, ingestion, social behavior, and studies related to the mechanisms of psychopathology. Contemporary reviews and theoretical articles are welcomed and the Editors invite such proposals from interested authors.