Infectious disease and disgust sensitivity in Bangladesh

Health and disgust sensitivity in a rural Bangladeshi sample. R analysis code and .por data file. (spss portable). Associated abstract: Disgust can be considered a psychological arm of the immune system that acts to prevent exposure to infectious agents. High disgust sensitivity is associated with greater behavioral avoidance of disease vectors and may thus be associated a lower disease burden. A cross-sectional survey in rural Bangladesh provided no strong support for this hypothesis. In many species, the expression of pathogen- and predator-avoidance mechanisms is contingent early life exposure to these predators and/or pathogens. Using childhood health data collected in the 1990s, we examined if adults with more infectious diseases in childhood showed greater adult disgust sensitivity: no support for this association was found. Explanations for these null finding and possible directions for future research are discussed.