Is it disgusting or am I just easily disgusted? The relation between situational disgust, dispositional disgust, and colonoscopy intentions

Objective: While early detection is an effective way to reduce mortality from colorectal cancer, screening rates are low. An underlying factor in screening completion failure may be experiences of disgust when learning about screening and/or dispositional disgust. Method: Participants recruited via Amazon MTurk (N = 296) read information about colonoscopy and completed an online survey assessing both dispositional forms of disgust (i.e. trait disgust and disgust sensitivity) and situational forms, including state disgust and disgust associated with colonoscopy. Participants reported intentions to discuss colonoscopy with a provider and to prepare for and complete screening. Results: Greater state disgust and the degree to which one associated disgust with colonoscopy predicted lower screening, preparation and provider discussion intentions. By contrast, neither trait disgust nor disgust sensitivity was associated with intentions. Both disgust sensitivity and trait disgust moderated the state disgust to intentions relation. Conclusions: This is one of few investigations of disgust examining the relation between specific types and colonoscopy intentions. Screening uptake may be improved by identifying specific components of disgust that have an effect on colonoscopy intentions. Future work focusing on the interplay between different disgust mechanisms as they relate to colonoscopy behaviour is important for intervention development.