The influence of disgust on ethnic prejudice of women and men

The article explores the role of disgust in generating ethnic prejudice. The study investigated the effects of experimentally induced emotions (disgust, fear, sadness and neutral mood) on psychological distance taken towards pictures of people with different skin color (a modified Approach-Avoidance Simulation method of A. Fila - Jankowska and K. Jankowski was used). Disgust made participants withdraw from pictures presenting faces of ethnic groups different from own group. The psychological distance taken under influence of disgust was the largest in comparison with remaining conditions of experiment. Participants withdrew from faces of members of the out-group only but not members of the in-group (European faces). The psychological distance was larger in case of groups that are targets of stereotypes in the society than in case of those who are not subject to stereotypization. The results also showed that women judged the pictures of the out-group members more harshly than men, as manifested in larger distances taken. peerReviewed publishedVersion