Previous research has linked certain psychological disorders, including obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), to the experience of disgust and how it is interpreted/appraised. Therefore, the present study examined whether targeting primary and secondary disgust appraisals (i.e., cognitive reappraisal) in individuals with moderate to high OCD-relevant contamination fears can effectively reduce disgust. Fifty-two participants were randomly assigned to one of three conditions; two of which involved reading a brief script modifying either a primary disgust appraisal (i.e., likelihood of a feared outcome) or a secondary disgust appraisal (i.e., the individual’s ability to cope), and a third control condition with no reappraisal script. Following this experimental manipulation of disgust appraisal, participants completed two contamination-relevant behavioural approach tasks which involved 1) increasing proximity to, and eventually touching, a dead cockroach, and 2) drinking apple juice from an unused urine sample collection container. Results indicated that the interventions successfully modified their intended appraisal targets. Furthermore, on the second behavioural approach task, the secondary reappraisal condition demonstrated significantly less disgust-related avoidance relative to the control condition and reported significantly less disgust relative to the primary reappraisal condition. Our results incrementally add to the existing literature that emphasises the potential advantages of modifying disgust appraisals and specifically secondary disgust appraisals when treating disgust-based psychological disorders.

先前的研究已经将某些心理障碍（包括强迫症）与厌恶的经历以及对它的理解/评估方式联系在一起。因此，本研究探讨了针对中度至高度与强迫症相关的污染恐惧的个人进行初次和二次厌恶评估（即认知再评估）是否可以有效减少厌恶。52名参与者被随机分配到以下三种情况之一：其中两个涉及阅读简短的脚本，该脚本修改了主要的厌恶评估（即，可能出现令人恐惧的结果）或次要的厌恶评估（即，个人的应对能力），以及第三个没有重新评估脚本的控制条件。经过对厌恶评估的实验性操作，参与者完成了两项与污染有关的行为方法任务，这些任务涉及1）增加与死蟑螂的接近，并最终与它们接触； 2）从未使用的尿液样本收集容器中喝苹果汁。结果表明，干预措施成功地修改了其预期的评估目标。此外，在第二行为举止任务上，与控制条件相比，次要重新评估条件显示出与厌恶相关的回避明显减少，相对于主要重新评估条件，其次则显示出明显更少的反感。我们的研究结果逐渐添加到现有文献中，这些文献强调了在治疗基于恶心的心理障碍时修改厌恶评估尤其是继发性厌恶评估的潜在优势。