Thats Just Gross!

Children are naturally wary of new foods which, in generations past, could have
potentially resulted in death, diarrhea, or severe poisoning. The twenty-first century provides
fewer opportunities for children to die from eating poisonous berries or leaves, but a childs
instincts are still to be highly suspicious of foods they are unfamiliar with. Fortunately for
camera-ready parents, this means that there are going to be plenty of opportunities to take
precious pictures of children who are quite disgusted with the new foods that they have been
given whilst their bodies process the new taste sensations. Disgust is one of the most distinct
facial expressions seen on the human face, and yet what causes this expression varies widely
from culture to culture. In their paper Microbes, Mating, and Morality: Individual Differences in
Three Functional Domains of Disgust Tybur, Lieberman, and Griskevicius describe three main
types of disgust: pathogen disgust, sexual disgust, and moral disgust. All of these various forms
of disgust still maintain similar physical responses, namely the intense desire to move the body
away from the situation causing the disgust response.
Anna Wierzbicka describes disgust in her publication Emotions Across Cultures through
her emotional meta-language:
disgust
X thinks something like this
I now know: this person did something bad
People shouldnt do things like this
When one thinks about it, one cant not feel something bad
Because of this, X feels something bad
X feels like someone who thinks something like this:
I have something bad in my mouth
I dont want this
For the purposes of this paper, there is an additional emphasis on Xs desire to remove itself in a
physical way from the something bad that has happened. This physical distance is often subtle,
but present in all forms of disgust.
Pathogen disgust is directly related to immediate survival, as it helps humans detect
potentially harmful microorganisms and avoid them (Tybur 105). Humans experience this when
they smell vomit, rotting meat, or are confronted with new or very bitter foods as a form of
physical preservation. Sexual disgust is described as an evolved solution to the adaptive
problem of avoiding biologically costly mates and sexual behaviors (Tybur 106). This form of
disgust is expressed when thinking about sexual relations with a genetically close relative, or
when an individual exhibits behavior that would damage the quality of their potential offspring.
Moral disgust, the most culturally influenced of the three forms of disgust, is primarily involved
in social transgressions. The idea behind this form is that the behavior exhibited goes against
the social norms and association with that particular behavior would result in social ostracism
(Tybur 106). Under these circumstances, emoting disgust simultaneously expresses that X

recognizes that the behavior fails to fit societys norms and refuses to participate in or condone
that particular behavior to avoid ostracism. As previously identified, exactly what causes these
responses varies drastically culture to culture, but the scientific presence of these disgust
responses in the brain certainly seems to give increased credence to the overall concept of
DISGUST as a cross-cultural concept.
These different types of disgust are expressed differently in the body, though not
drastically so. Pathogen disgust is easily the most recognizable, as it is the stereotypical
expression of scrunched nose, lowered eyebrows, and upper lip raised. This expression is directly
related to the desire to distance the body from any potential pathogens to avoid getting sick.
Tongues are sometimes distended if a food was consumed that elicits this response, often in an
effort to remove it from the mouth. Because of its reproductive implications, sexual disgust is
typically expressed by the physical removal of the body from a sexual situation that causes this
disgust, thus preventing sexual contact and reproduction. However, the facial expression of
disgust is often displayed when an individual is prompted to imagine sexual relations with a
genetically close relative a reaction that prevents close interbreeding and encourages genetic
diversity in offspring. Moral disgust is the most nuanced and culturally sensitive form of disgust,
yet it also involves physical desire to remove the body to avoid contamination from the taboo
behavior. The individual displays this emotion on the face to communicate to others that they
find the behavior in question repulsive. In very few of these circumstances does the individual
actually remove themselves from the situation, but the desire to do so is overwhelmingly present.
For most individuals, except for those who suffer or will suffer from Huntingtons
disease, recognizing disgust in fellow humans is relatively easy. This expression can be confused
with anger, characterized by scrunched and lowered eyebrows with the mouth open (to yell),
pressed in a straight line, or puckered/pursed; young children especially have a difficult time
distinguishing between these two facial expressions without outside context. The largest
difference between disgust and anger in the body is that those experiencing anger move toward
the negative stimuli, whilst those experiencing disgust attempt to remove themselves from the
situation or from the object of their disgust. Confusion (though not usually classified as a
universal human emotion) can at times be mistaken for disgust or vice versa, as the furrowed
brows of confusion are quite similar to the furrowed brows of disgust, though without the distinct
nose crinkle.
While the cause of disgust may vary from culture to culture, the withdrawal of the body
and face from the negative stimuli is common in all authentic pictures of disgust. Whether the
disgust is motivated from a pathogenic, sexual, or moralistic standpoint, the physical response
still maintains this principle of physical removal. Disgust is an extremely personal-preservation
driven emotion which strives to keep us alive, keep our offspring healthy, and ensure we stay
within the safety of our social group.

Wrinkled Nose
Raised Upper Lip

Wrinkled Nose

Lowered Eyebrows

Withdrawing from Stimuli

Wrinkled
Withdrawing from
Stimuli Nose

Protruding Tongue
Lowered Eyebrows
Wrinkled Nose

Raised Upper Lip (very subtle)

Raised Upper Lip
Withdrawing from Stimuli

Works Cited
Herz, Rachel. Thats Disgusting: Unraveling the Mysteries of Repulsion. New York: W.W.
Norton & Company, 2012. Print.
Tybur, Joshua M., Vladus Griskevicius, Debra Lieberman. Microbes, Mating, and Morality:
Individual Differences in Three Functional Domains of Disgust. Journal of Personality
and Social Psychology 97.1 (Jul 2009): 103-122. Print.
Wierzbicka, Anna. Emotions across Languages and Cultures: Diversity and Universals.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999. Print.